The President of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has cast serious doubt on the likelihood of Nigeria’s state-owned refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna ever becoming functional again, despite having gulped a staggering $18 billion over the years.
Naijaonpoint reports that Dangote made this revelation on Thursday while hosting members of the Global CEO Africa group from Lagos Business School at the Dangote Petroleum Refinery in Lekki, Lagos, following a tour of the massive 650,000-barrel-per-day facility.
Dangote, whose privately owned refinery has already allocated over 50% of its production capacity to Premium Motor Spirit (petrol), compared this to just 22% petrol production by the NNPC-managed refineries when they were in operation.
Recounting his experience with the refineries during the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Dangote recalled that he and his team acquired the refineries in January 2007, but were forced to return them months later when President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua came into power.
He said, “The refineries that we bought before, which were owned by Nigeria, were doing about 22 per cent of PMS. We bought the refineries in January 2007. Then we had to return them to the government because there was a change of government.
“And the managing director at that time convinced Yar’adua that the refineries would work. They said they just gave them to us as a parting gift or so. And as of today, they have spent about $18bn on those refineries, and they are still not working. And I don’t think, and I doubt very much if they will work.”
Describing the turnaround maintenance projects on the state refineries as “misguided,” Dangote said, attempting to revive outdated facilities is equivalent to modernising a 40-year-old car.
He said, “(The turnaround maintenance) is like you trying to modernise a car that was built 40 years ago, when technology and everything have changed. Even if you change the engine, the body will not be able to take the shock of that new technology engine.”
Obasanjo Slams NNPC’s “Corruption”
Dangote’s remarks echoed earlier criticisms by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who had repeatedly condemned the NNPC’s handling of the refineries.
Obasanjo, speaking in 2024 and again in January 2025, revealed that Shell and other international oil companies had refused his request to manage the refineries, declaring them unviable.
He stated, “I ran to him (Yar’Adua), I said, ‘You know this is not right’. He said, ‘Well, NNPC said they can do it.’ I said, ‘NNPC cannot do it,’ I told my successor that ‘the refineries, from what I heard and know, will not work and when you want to sell them, you will not get anybody to buy them at $200m as scrap’. And that is the situation we are in.
“So, why do we do this kind of thing to ourselves? NNPC knew that they could not do it, but they knew they could continue with the corruption that was already occurring within NNPC. When people were there to do it, they put pressure. In a civilised society, those people should be in jail.”
Again, in January, Obasanjo said, “I was told not too long ago that since that time, more than $2bn have been squandered on the refineries and they still will not work.
“If a company like Shell tells me what they told me, I will believe them. If anybody tells you now that it (the refinery) is working, why are they now with Aliko (Dangote)? And Aliko will make his refinery work; not only make it work, he will make it deliver.”
Obasanjo concluded with a Yoruba proverb, comparing inflated claims about the refineries’ performance to a farmer who planted 100 heaps of yam but falsely claimed to have planted 200.
He said, “They say that after he has harvested 100 heaps of yams, he will also have 100 heaps of lies. You know what that means.”