By Mohammed Danlami
The President of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has clarified that the Federal Government, through the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL owns only 7. 2% stake in the Dangote Refinery, not 20% as originally intended.
Aliko was responding to a question at an interactive session with media leaders and editors who were on a tour of his refinery in Lagos on Sunday.
He said the original agreement at inception was for the government to acquire 20% shares in the refinery project.
He said that however, after the NNPCL made an initial payment of 7.2%, the balance was not paid even after an extension of time for the payment of the balance was granted two times.
After a follow up with the NNPCL for the balance, he said, the oil company resolved to review its stake to peg it at 7.2%.
He also said that the refinery was designed as Africa’s biggest oil refinery and the world’s biggest single-train facility with 650kbpd.
He said the refinery which was built with state of the art technologies has dedicated marine facilities for offtake of crude and loading of petroleum products.
Alhaji Aliko said the Dangote Refinery is committed to creating jobs and promoting the economic growth of Nigeria.
