The Federal Government will soon start sourcing foreign exchange (forex) from Dangote Group, as soon as the latter’s refinery, petrochemicals and fertiliser projects come on stream. This potential reversal of roles was disclosed by Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, after he spent over four hours touring the ongoing Dangote Refinery, Petrochemicals, Fertiliser projects and Dangote deep-water jetty in Lagos.
Emefiele toured the project sites in the company of the President/CEO of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote; Deputy Governor of the CBN, Aishah Ahmad; Group Managing Director, Dangote Industries Limited, Mr. Olakunle Alake; Group Executive Director of Dangote Industries, Mr. Devakumar Edwin; and the Managing Director of Guaranty Trust Bank, Mr. Segun Agbaje.
The CBN governor premised his comment on the huge forex earnings expected to accrue from export of the petrochemical and fertiliser products from Dangote refinery and fertilizer plants by the time the fertilizer plant begins operations in May this year, and the refinery in 2020. Emefiele, who commended Aliko Dangote for the volume of work done on the projects since his last visit over two years ago, also enthused that the refinery and fertiliser projects would help Nigeria create thousands of jobs and check importation of fuel by the Federal Government; thereby saving government huge forex currently being spent on fuel import. In his remarks, President, Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, said the project would definitely transform the economy. He said: “We have a couple of projects at hand and we will continue with these transformative projects. The biggest problem we have in Nigeria is that we currently import more than we produce like any other African countries.” “But, by the time we finish our fertiliser plant, Nigeria will be the largest exporter of fertiliser in Africa. We will also be the largest exporter of petrochemicals and the largest exporter of petroleum products in the whole of Africa. This is a major transformation.” He said the 3billion Standard Cubic Feet gas pipeline and other Dangote Projects were geared towards Nigeria’s economic transformation. Dangote commended CBN for its moral support to the refinery project, saying “there are a lot going on in Nigeria. We want the CBN to support us like what it did in cement sector, which made Nigeria not only self-sufficient in the production of cement, but also an exporter of the product. ‘’Today, Nigeria will not even import cement because we no longer have capacity for importation of cement.
