Dangote Refinery: Can Nigerians Roll Out the Drums?

Recently, the moment Nigerians have eagerly anticipated eventually dawned. President Muhammadu Buhari commissioned the Dangote Refinery– a project many had christened the ‘game changer’.

The project, which is projected to be the largest single-train refinery in the world, is situated in the Ibeju-Lekki Free Zone in Lagos, and projected to process 650,000 barrels of crude oil daily. Should this number be right, this will mean Nigeria may no longer have the need to import petroleum products into the country.

This is a great news and explains the hopes that Nigerians waged on the project when it was first announced in 2013. Anyone who is familiar with Nigeria will not find it hard to understand the expectations of Nigerians. Although Nigeria is rich in oil, citizens have not actually enjoyed the benefit of the immense wealth that comes with it.

If it is not fuel scarcity, it is the corruption-tainted fuel subsidy regime that drains any benefit that should accrue to citizens from the oil wealth. All of these unpalatable experiences are what many Nigerians envisaged will give way with the actualization of the Dangote refinery. This much was hinted by the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, at the inauguration of the refinery.

According to Emefiele, Nigeria may save up to N35 trillion in fiscal expenditure over the next five years due to the operation of the refinery. The number one banker of the country explained that the refinery will put an end to the importation of petroleum products into the country, and in the process, save Nigeria huge amount of money that goes into servicing subsidy.

“Thankfully, the Dangote Refinery and Petrochemicals could spare Nigeria about N5trn to N7trn annually in fiscal expenditure of the federal government over the years,” Emefiele pointed out. This is huge, especially given the monumental poverty and infrastructural decay that is bedeviling Nigeria.

Since 2005 when subsidy found its way into Nigeria’s fiscal expenditure, it has grown from N351bn to a staggering N4.39 trillion in the 2022 fiscal year. Between when it started and now, Nigeria has spent excess of N20 trillion on subsiding petroleum products. This makes no sense, especially for a country that has nearly half of its population in abject poverty. During the 2022 PHC Summit, the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHDA) noted that about six out of 10 Nigerians lack access to quality primary healthcare services and this is responsible for the worsening disease outbreaks and out-of-pocket expenditures.

Out-of-school children in Nigeria remain embarrassingly high as at least 18 million children of school age are reportedly outside classrooms. In February 2022, public universities in Nigeria were shut down and left millions of students across the country out of class as lecturers protest the poor conditions of facilities. The money that has gone into servicing subsidy is more than enough to enrol Nigerians on a comprehensive healthcare plan and many other interventions that could positively impact millions of Nigerians.

Sarafa Ibrahim, Iwo, Osun State