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| Aliko Dangote and Femi Otedola |
Otedola who spoke with so much excitement
after the commissioning of the refinery in Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos, expressed how
enthused he was, seeing a project that began as far back as 2012, come to
fruition.
His words, “This is a remarkable project.
I’m excited today. Today is the happiest moment in my life to see this project
come to reality. This is a project I’ve been visiting with Aliko since 2012″.He
added that refining crude oil locally is what Nigeria needs at the moment as
this would drastically reduce the prices of petroleum products.
According to him, the journey towards the
construction of the refinery, began in 2007 when he and his friend , Aliko
Dangote, “formed a consortium called Blue Star, to acquire the Port Harcourt
and Kaduna refineries which for whatever reasons, was scuttled; the takeover
was scuttled and Aliko said he was going to build his refinery.
“My take is, God has to use someone to do
things like this. I’m not God chosen today but Aliko has done it with the
special grace of God. This project will be a game changer for Nigeria. This
project gives me hope that Nigeria is on the path to achieve greatness, once we
sort out our little, little issues- security, etc.”
Describing the refinery as the largest in
the world, Otedola pointed out that “what that means is the cost of importing
products will come down definitely.
It will create local jobs, hundreds of
thousands of jobs and it will stop the importation of petroleum products which
to me is not the best for a country like ours that has more than enough crude
oil. So, it’s appalling to see us importing petroleum products”.
He also frowned at the high cost of
petroleum products in a country like Nigeria that is highly endowed with crude
oil, recalling that “At some point in my life, I used to control 92% of that
market. When I used to do the business, a ship load of diesel cost $22 million
to import which then will translate to maybe 60 naira per litre.
But it’s disheartening for me to see the
price of diesel today, when I know the landing cost”, he said, stressing that
“the market is being exploited. That is why, when you have few people in a
business, it’s not the best for any country”.
Otedola who also spoke about the Dangote
Fertilizer plant, described it as the second largest fertilizer plant in the
world, noting that “What this means is Nigerians are not going to import
fertilizer any more. All the billions of dollars we spend in importing
fertilizer will stop”.
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