Nigerian entrepreneur Aliko Dangote has reproached African governments for their longstanding failure to advocate for the creation of an oil refinery for the continent.
The chairman of the Dangote Refinery highlighted that the absence of political determination and vested interests has hindered Africa’s efforts to build its own oil refinery.
Dangote contended that these self-serving interests, largely from those benefiting from fuel imports into Africa, have obstructed the continent’s capacity to process its own oil products.
Speaking in an interview with CNN’s Eleni Giokos, Dangote said, “There are so many issues. I can’t count them, but there are so many. It’s not only money, political will, and also people who are benefiting from this whole stuff of importing petroleum products into Africa are actually discouraging those governments from building a refinery.”
Africa’s richest man further highlighted the difficulty in obtaining substantial funding from local and foreign banks for initiatives like building a refinery.
“…And they won’t get the loans anyway because they don’t have very strong banks. The international banks will not support anything like this. We’re talking about industrializing the continent, creating a more connected Africa,” he stressed.
Dangote continued, “But we have to make sure we focus and say, look, we are the only ones that can deliver. We Africans are the only people that can develop Africa. If we’re waiting for foreigners or foreign investors to come and develop Africa, it will never happen.”
He pointed out that the financial burden caused by this circumstance extends to the capacity of enterprises to pay their debts.
He said that in order to secure the success of the company, he would be more tactical now that he had more information.
However, Dangote also disclosed that a number of people, including friends and colleagues, questioned his capacity to take on such a project.