President of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has projected that when operational, the Dangote Refinery and Petrochemical plant will save the country over $2.5 billion yearly through urea and polythene products export to other countries.
Apart from the foreign exchange accrual benefit, he also said the plant has the capacity to employ more than 70,000 Nigerians, doubling its current workforce, when it becomes operational.
The industrialist gave these potential beneficial impacts of the $2billion plant, when the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Godwin Emefiele, paid a facility tour to the company at the weekend in Lagos.
Dangote, said he was on a mission to aggressively reduce the unemployment rate in the country through investments in various sectors of the economy.
Apart from job creation, the plant will also retain foreign exchange in Nigeria, as the country becomes self-sufficient in petroleum refining.
The industrialist said: “Besides, we are going to help in terms of not only creating jobs but also in reducing the outflow of foreign exchange not only in petroleum products but also in petrochemicals, and in fertilizers. We would be one of the highest foreign exchange generating companies going forward.”
Dangote said the granulated urea fertilizer plant located at Ibeju Lekki, Lagos will begin operations in May this year.
According to him, the fertilizer plant will make Nigeria the only urea exporting country in Sub-Saharan Africa, and biggest producer of polyethylene, which is capable of generating $2.5 billion annually.
He said: “Nigeria will soon become the biggest and only urea exporter in sub-Saharan Africa for the first time. And we are not only exporting, we would be exporting big time.
“I think we must thank Mr President for his policies. I thank the CBN governor and management for bringing down interest rates to encourage more entrepreneurs to go into mega projects like this.
On his part, the CBN governor commended the Dangote Group for its commitment towards bringing the project on stream as planned and expressed satisfaction with the facilities on site.
He said: “The reason that I am here today is to see what is going on site. This time that the economy is going through its own challenges there is need for us to diversify the Nigerian economy from oil to other areas where we have abundant resources. “
Emefiele said the fertiliser plant would stop importation of fertilisers as about 25 per cent of its products would be used for domestic consumption to boost agriculture in the country.
According to him, the plant will also generate a minimum of $750 million through export annually.
“The 650,000-bpd capacity refinery when operational will not only satisfy local consumption but will also position Nigeria as a major exporter of petroleum products.
“Nigeria is so central and this refinery will serve almost the whole of Africa which will lead to cheap cost of freight.
“This project is so strategically positioned that it will even make the final price of petroleum within Nigeria and even outside Nigeria to be lower than those imported outside the African continent.
We need to encourage other Nigerians and we will keep saying this. Nigerians must stand tall and be ready to come out and support their country,” the CBN governor said.
