President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote has been recognised and given the ‘Founder of the Year 2023’ award by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank).
The award held in Ghana was given to Dangote because of his newly opened $19 billion petrochemicals plant, which is now Africa’s largest refinery and the group managing director, Dangote Industries Limited, Olakunle Alake received the award on behalf of Aliko Dangote.
The president of Dangote Industries Limited, Aliko Dangote is a man driven by ambition, and this refinery is a testament to that. Its impact will reverberate through various facets of Nigeria’s economy.
The Dangote Petroleum Refinery is located in the in Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos, covering a land area of approximately 2,635 hectares. It is the world’s Largest Single-Train 650,000 barrels per day Petroleum Refinery with 900 KTPA Polypropylene Plant.
The 435MW Power Plant in the Refinery alone will be able to meet the total power requirement of Ibadan DisCo of 860,316 MWh covering five States including Oyo, Ogun, Osun, Kwara and Ekiti.
The Dangote Petroleum Refinery can meet 100 per cent of the Nigerian requirement of all refined products (Gasoline, 53 million litres per day; Diesel, 34 litres per day; Kerosene, 10 million litres per day and Aviation Jet, 2 million litres per day) and also have surplus of each of these products for export.
The refinery is designed for 100 per cent Nigerian Crude with flexibility to process other crudes. Self-sufficient Marine facility with ability for freight optimization. Largest single order of 5 SPMs anywhere in the world.
Diesel & Gasoline Products from the refinery will conform to Euro V specifications; the refinery design complies to World Bank, US EPA, European emission norms and Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) emission / effluent norms; and State- of- the- art technology.
The refinery is also designed to process large variety of crudes including many of the African Crudes, some of the Middle Eastern Crudes and the US Light Tight Oil. Dangote Petroleum Refinery can meet 100 per cent of the Nigerian requirement of all liquid products (Gasoline, Diesel, Kerosene & Aviation Jet) and also would have surplus of each of these products for export.
65 Million Cubic Metres of Sand dredged costing approx. Euros 300 million, using the world’s largest, the second largest and the tenth largest dredgers to elevate the height by 1.5 metres, to insure against any potential impact of increase in mean sea level due to global warming.
Bought over 1,209 units of various equipment to enhance the local capacity for site works since even the biggest local civil contractors are unable to handle even small portions of our construction requirement. Bought 332 cranes to build up equipment installation capacity since the current capacity in Nigeria is extremely poor.
Built the world’s largest granite quarry to supply coarse aggregate, stone column material, stone base, stone dust & material for break water. (10 million tonnes per year production capacity).
Developed a port and constructed two quays with a load bearing capacity of 25 tonnes/ sq meter to bring Over Dimensional Cargoes close to the site directly. Constructed two more quays in the port with a capacity to handle up to Panamax vessels to export the fertiliser and the petrochemicals and two quays to handle liquid cargoes. The port will thus have six quays, including a Roll-on/Roll-off quay.
A statement issued by the organisers of the award stated that, “the Pan-African Business and Development Awards were designed to celebrate and recognise the excellence of outstanding organisations and individuals within the African business and finance sectors.
“The evening recognised some leaders in African business, and Aliko Dangote (GCON) won the Afreximbank Founder of the Year in recognition of his extraordinary achievements building one of Africa’s leading industrial groups with a truly pan-African footprint. This comes on the back of the recent official opening of his $19 billion petrochemicals plant and Africa’s largest refinery, which received substantial support from Afreximbank.
“Two other greats of industry, the Zimbabwean Strive Masiyiwa and the Togolese Koffi Gervais Djondo were also recognised for their outstanding contributions to African business and industry. Masiyiwa is the founder of Liquid Intelligent Technologies, which has the largest network of fibre optic cables on the continent, Cassava Technologies, and Econet, the largest telecoms and mobile payment operator in Zimbabwe. Djondo helped found Ecobank, the leading African group in terms of footprint, as well as regional airline Asky.”
The statement further revealed that telecoms operator, MTN and Egyptian business, ElSewedy were also given Special Recognitions awards. MTN was recognised for transforming the Africa telecoms sector and ElSewedy for its role in the Africa infrastructure sector. ElSewedy and Afreximbank have built a strong relationship that has seen its group become a true continental champion and part of a consortium of African banks and private sector companies that are building the multi-billion-dollar Julius Nyerere Hydropower Project in Tanzania.”
Three banks were recognised in the Financial Institutions of the Year category. National Bank of Egypt, First Bank of Nigeria and Coris Bank, an important regional player in West Africa that started off in Burkina Faso, were chosen based on their volume of trade finance facilities they have utilised.
Speaking recently at the commissioning of the Refinery, Dangote disclosed that the newly commissioned 650,000pbd refinery would employ over 100,000 Nigerians youths as well as generate over $21 billion, therefore saving the country huge forex, that would have been used for fuel importation.
The company, according to him, now has over 33,000 employees. Much to the excitement of Nigerians, Dangote said the commissioning has marked the beginning of the new journey of the self-sufficiency in refined petroleum products and exportation of same just as been achieved in Cement and lately fertilizer.
The coming on stream of Dangote Refinery is a long awaiting dream of Nigeria and Dangote Group and a game-changer. It is expected to trigger activities that may see the struggling Nigerian economy begin recovery from years of almost total dependence on import of petroleum products and associated depletion of foreign reserves among other woes.
