Rain causes havoc on Dangote’s $4.5bn refinery

The heavy raining season this year has caused devastating damages to the over $4.5 billion refinery of Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote.

Dangote, who is the President, Dangote Industries Limited, made the revelation in an interview with Bloomberg TV, saying the rain this year caused devastating damage on his refinery project site.

According to him, the oil refinery, designed to process 650,000 barrels a day of crude, should start producing fuel in the first quarter of 2020 and be at full capacity within six months of that.

He said: “We will finish the mechanical [part] by the end of 2019 if hopefully, we don’t have the same rain because of the raining season this year… Climate change is real. We have had devastating damage to what we are doing at the site. But anyway, we have recovered a bit, and we are pushing.

“It is a huge refinery; it is the largest single line refinery in the world. We will start production by the end of the first quarter of 2020. We will ramp up very quickly; it is a high-tech refinery.”

Read also: AfDB, Bill Gates to inject $500m into sanitation in Africa

It would be recalled that Dangote had said in August that he had arranged more than $4.5billion in debt financing for the refinery project.

According to him, lenders would commit about $3.15billion, with the World Bank’s private sector arm providing $150million.

He however said that he was investing more than 60 per cent from his own cash flow.

 

RipplesNigeria… without borders, without fears

Click here to join the Ripples Nigeria WhatsApp group for latest updates.

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now