The President and Chief Executive of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has called on the federal government to end fuel subsidies completely.
Africa’s wealthiest man spoke during an interview with Bloomberg TV on Monday.
He said, “Subsidy is a very sensitive issue. Once you are subsidising something then people will bloat the price and then the government will end up paying what they are not supposed to be paying. It is the right time to get rid of subsidies.”
“But this refinery will resolve a lot of issues out there, you know, it will show the real consumption of Nigeria, because, you know, nobody can tell you. Some people say 60 million litres of gasoline per day.
“Some say, it’s less. But right now, if you look at it by us producing, everything can be counted. So everything can be accounted for, particularly for most of the trucks or ships that will come to load from us.
“We are going to put a tracker on them to be sure they are going to take the oil within Nigeria, and that, I think, can help the government save quite a lot of money. I think it is the right time, you know, to remove the subsidy.”
Dangote who recalled the challenges faced after the project’s launch in 2013, experiencing a five-year delay due to issues with state government and host communities and a running loan of $2.4bn, said he is personally proud to achieve the feat.
Dangote said petrol subsidy is not sustainable and the government cannot afford to keep subsidising.
“Our price of gasoline is about 60 percent the price of our neighbouring countrries and we have porous borders, so it is not sustainable. Government cannot afford the amount of subsidies we are paying,” he said.
