On Saturday, Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest person, disclosed that he did not receive any incentives or support from the Nigerian government to build his $20 billion refinery situated in the Lekki Free Trade Zone.
Dangote made this disclosure during a visit from the leadership of the House of Representatives, led by Speaker Tajudeen Abbas and his deputy, Benjamin Kalu.
He specifically stated that he paid $100 million to the Lagos State government to acquire the land where the world largest Refinery and petrochemical company was built.
Highlighting the widespread support from the Nigerian public, Dangote remarked, “The majority of the population supports us. We remain undeterred and will continue our efforts.”
He said, “You know whatever we do we add value, we are not an assembly plant. When I said an assembly, we are not packaging plant. If you look at all our operations as Dangote we actually add value.
“We take local materials and turn them into products and we sell. So which means it’s a circular economy which we are practising, everything is here. Everything is in Nigeria – the farmers, the banks or maybe the people in the mines and banks everything is about local.
“It is the main reason we are number two in flour milling but we saw it because the wheat is being imported abroad and the more wheat we use the more jobs we create out there and that is why we cancelled that. We remain only sugar, salt is not really a very big business. So that is what we have done.
“So now, what are we doing? What we are doing is see we are always the first mover. You know, we always move first and other people will follow and we have never, ever either consciously or unconsciously stopped anybody from doing the same businesses that we are doing.
“To the contrary when you look at it when we first came into cement production it was actually only Lafarge that was operating here in Nigeria and nobody called Lafarge monopoly. But we Dangote, the first plant we set up was 45 million tons against less than two million of local production but when we got in there people now start saying now monopoly, monopoly and this is sad.
“This is really very disheartening when people keep talking monopoly, monopoly – monopoly is only when you stop people, you block them through legal means or whatever, no it is a level playing field.
“Whatever Dangote was given like cement, for example others too were given. Some of them may even get more than us.
“We are always very careful. You heard what I said in the refinery; we did not and I said we did not collect one single incentive from the Federal Government of Nigeria or from even the Lagos State.
“Yes, Lagos State maybe they gave us a good deal but we paid $100 million for the land. It wasn’t free land; we paid for it.
“So, people are always looking at the other side, they are not looking at the real picture. Secondly, this country has been having petrol issues…”
Dangote, however, requested that the House of Representatives conduct an investigation into the quality of diesel and petrol sold at filling stations nationwide.
This comes as he refutes allegations that the petroleum products from his refinery are of poorer quality than imported ones.
Dangote urged the House to establish a committee to conduct thorough tests on products at various filling stations across the country, highlighting the detrimental effects of substandard fuel on vehicles and engines.
He emphasised the need to address this issue to protect consumers and prevent further damage.