Dike Onwuamaeze
The Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Forum (NECA) has declared that the Dangote Refinery would turbo-charge the engine of the Nigerian economy, unstrap the strings holding its growth and bring succor to a country that is in dire need of industrial renaissance.
The NECA also declared that the refinery was capable of generating the total power requirement that could address the electricity needs of all the five states in the south-west region of Nigeria.
These declarations were contained in a public statement that was released yesterday by the Director General of NECA, Mr. Adewale-Smatt Oyerinde, titled “HIGH Unemployment Rate and Promoting Economic Growth: NECA Commends Dangote Refinery.”
Oyerinde said: “This refinery in a sum, is one edifice that will turbo-charge the engine of the Nigerian economy, unstrap the strings holding the development of the economy and wade off external and domestic headwinds against efficacies of fiscal and monetary instruments.”
He added that the Dangote Refinery with its refining capacity of 650,000 barrels per day is set to be the biggest single train petroleum refinery in the world with 900 KTPA polypropylene plant.
“The refinery is the largest oil refinery in Africa with a land area of approximately 2,635 hectares. Having about 435 MW power plant, the refinery is capable of generating the total power requirement of 860,316 MWh covering five states in the south-west region of Nigeria.”
Oyerinde said the refinery has the capacity to meet 100 per cent of Nigeria’s consumption of all liquid products, including gasoline (PMS), Ddiesel (AGO), kerosene (DPK) and aviation jet fuel (Jet A-1) as 60 per cent of the production capacity of this petroleum refinery could meet the entire consumption needs of the country, while the other 40 per cent would be exported to generate a huge amount of foreign exchange that would impact positively on Nigeria’s balance of payment.
He said: “With the petroleum refinery and petrochemical plant as well as the fertilizer plant housed in Nigeria, it invariably implies that there would be no more importation of petroleum products; rather, there will be export of finished products, availability of petroleum products, thus, putting an end to long queues and scarcity of petroleum products.
“A significant plus of this feat would be the attraction of foreign capital investments that the country desperately needs.
“The multiplier effect of its target 135,000 direct and indirect jobs for Nigerians and displacement of plastics imports in the fiscal space are a part of the economic springboard this refinery brings to the Nigerian economy.
“In addition, it would lead to skills transfer and technology acquisition opportunities with beneficial impacts on the downstream sector.”
The NECA, therefore, called on the government and other stakeholders to pay more attention to creating an enabling environment for organised businesses to thrive so that, “we have more private sector investment to reengineer the nation’s economy.”
