My refinery will employ at least 100,000 Nigerians- Dangote

Founder and President of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote says at least, 100,000 Nigerians will be employed with his newly commissioned 650,000pbd refinery.

He said the establishment of the refinery would also save the country huge forex that would have been spent on fuel importation.

According to him, the first products from the refinery will hit the market towards the end of July this year, adding that the refinery currently has over 33,000 employees.

Speaking at the inauguration of the Refinery in Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos, Dangote said its products “will be in the market before the end of July.’’

Presidents of Ghana, Togo, Niger, Senegal and a representative of the President of Chad and President Buhari all attended the ceremony.

At the occasion, Dangote said, “Beyond today’s ceremony, our first goal is to ramp up production of the various products to ensure that within this year, we’re able to fully satisfy our nation’s demand for higher quality products.

”The accomplishment is to enable Nigeria to eliminate the tragedy of import dependency and stop once and for all toxic, sub-standard petroleum products from being dumped in Nigeria’s market.

“Beyond this, we intend to ensure that our plants are run at the highest capacity of utilisation and the highest efficiency to enable us to export competitively to other markets, especially in the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS and wider regions in which 53 countries of 55 are dependent on imports to meet their petroleum products’ demand”.

Speaking at the occasion, president Muhammadu Buhari said all hands must be deck to bring back the lost glory of Nigeria.

“To achieve the goals of Agenda 2063, Africa must come together, we must integrate our economies, eliminate barriers to trade and energize our youthful population to scale up our productive capacity.

“We must create necessary conditions for our private sectors to grow and partner with the public sector to accelerate economic growth across the continent.

“We must not allow outside powers to use some of our leaders to destabilize our economic and political trajectory,” Buhari stated.