President and CEO of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, highlighted steps to end Nigeria’s persistent fuel scarcity during a press briefing at the State House in Abuja on Tuesday.
He urged the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and fuel marketers to cease fuel imports, citing his refinery as a sustainable solution.
According to Dangote, his refinery has an estimated daily production capacity of 30-32 million liters, with 500 million liters already in reserve—enough to meet Nigeria’s fuel needs for over 12 days, even without additional imports.
“We’re fully prepared to supply the market with 30 million liters per day, and we’re ramping up production. I’m confident that if NNPCL and marketers source locally, queues at filling stations will be eliminated,” he stated.
Dangote also addressed the financial impact of storing such a large fuel reserve, noting that holding 500 million liters incurs significant costs.
“Every day this fuel remains in our tanks, we’re losing potential income from interest—around 32%,” he explained, calling on marketers to source from his refinery to relieve fuel shortages.
This statement follows the federal government’s recent policy shift to sell crude oil to the Dangote Refinery in naira rather than U.S. dollars, a move aimed at stabilizing domestic fuel prices and reducing dollar demand in oil transactions, which could bolster Nigeria’s currency.
