Dangote secures $4.25 billion for oil refinery project

Founder and CEO of the Dangote Group., Aliko Dangote. PHOTO/File

(Bloomberg) – Dangote Group CEO, Aliko Dangote, has revealed that he has secured US$4.25 billion to build a refinery.

Refining “is an excellent business to get in to,” Dangote said in an interview with Bloomberg TV’s Ryan Chilcote in Cape Town, where he was attending a business forum. “We have already secured US$4.25 billion. Two offshore banks and the rest are Nigerian banks.”

Nigeria, a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), imports about 70 percent of the oil products it needs to meet domestic requirements.

(More: Dangote ventures into oil – to build refinery worth $8 billion)

Nigeria’s four refineries process less than the 445,000 barrels a day of capacity because of aging infrastructure and poor maintenance. The country exports about four times that volume in crude oil.

Dangote is the richest black man, with an estimated wealth of US$20 billion, and the 34th wealthiest person globally.