Dangote Refinery may be in trouble
OpenLife Nigeria reports that Alhaji Aliko Dangote, a Nigerian billionaire business magnate, reputed as the wealthiest person in Africa, with an estimated net worth of US$11.1 billion may be swimming in a financial mess if information available to OpenLife is a guide.
Specifically, the Dangote Refinery, owned by the Kano State-born billionaire, which business analysts view as the next cash cow after his cement industries, is the world’s biggest single-train facility.
Upon commissioning by end of 2021, the refinery would have gulped about $18 billion.
Also, the refinery will produce Euro-V quality gasoline and diesel, as well as jet fuel and polypropylene. The project is expected to generate 4,000 direct and 145,000 indirect jobs.
Expectedly, young Nigerians are already upbeat in abundant jobs even as government exudes confidence in the anticipated expanded gross domestic product, GDP.
But in all of this, information filtering out does not support the realization of these expectations.
According to Dr. Okey Ikechukwu, a scholar and the University of Nigeria, UNN, Don, the Dangote refinery is allegedly indebted to about $7billion.
The huge debt, according to the Executive Director, Development Specs Academy. Senior Fellow, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, during an interactive session on Arise TV, may not have been properly regulated.
He stated that the development would necessitate Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) to take over the refinery, which he has also read in the papers.
Amcon was established on the 19th of July 2010 to be a key stabilizing and re-vitalizing tool aimed at reviving the financial system by efficiently resolving the non-performing loan assets of the banks in the Nigerian economy.
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