Fuel importers discouraging govts from building refineries in Africa – Dangote

Africa’s richest man and owner of the $20 billion Dangote Refinery, Aliko Dangote, has stated that individuals who benefit from fuel importation are deterring African governments from constructing refineries on the continent.

Dangote made the statement during a conversation with CNN’s reporter, Eleni Giokos, at his refinery in Lagos, Nigeria.

He said: “There are other countries in Africa who have been trying to build refineries but have been unable to. There has not been a new refinery in Africa in the last 35 years.

“There are so many issues regarding this such as money, political will, and also people who are benefitting from this whole system of importing petroleum products into Africa are actually discouraging their governments from building a refinery.

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“Also, they won’t get loans anyway because they don’t have very strong banks. The international banks will not support anything like this.”