President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has revealed that he faced intense resistance from interests in Nigeria’s oil industry before his 700,000-barrel-per-day refinery became operational.
Dangote said the project could not be abandoned because its success, in his view, was critical to breaking a system that had allowed huge sums to be spent on fuel subsidies.
Speaking in a recent interview with Al Jazeera, the businessman claimed that about $10 billion was being spent annually on fuel subsidies before the refinery disrupted the system.
“Turning back was not an option. They were looting $10 billion every year because it was a subsidy. People were just writing numbers, the government was busy paying and sweating, but we came and disrupted everything,” he said.
Dangote said his company had to “fight them hard” to overcome the opposition, adding that the resistance has reduced since the refinery demonstrated that it could operate successfully.
He, however, suggested that attempts to frustrate the refinery had not completely disappeared.
“We fought them hard, they saw that we had succeeded, so now things have calmed down. Of course, we still have little flies that will come and try to disturb us,” he said.
The comments come as the Dangote Refinery deepens its presence in Nigeria’s petroleum market and moves into the capital market.
The refinery’s Initial Public Offering opened on the Nigerian Exchange Limited on September 14 at N525 per share.
With its stated capacity of 700,000 barrels of crude oil per day, the refinery represents one of the biggest private investments in Nigeria’s petroleum industry.