Page 41 - Nigeriaone mag 2 edition en

Dangote Group

History of the Dangote Group Challenges and Issues
Dangote Group (Dangote industries Limited) is the The ambition of the Dangote Group is to make Ni-
first African multinational company owned by the geria self-sufficient in almost every area in which it
famous Nigerian businessman Aliko Dangote. is involved. To achieve this, the group is constantly
Although its founder started his business in ce- developing bold plans in the areas of agriculture,
ment as early as 1977, the Dangote Group was only telecommunications, fertilizer, petrochemicals and
established in 1981 and then started importing especially oil refining.
iron bars, rice, sugar, cement and fish. In this last area, the Dangote group aspires to re-
With more than a dozen businesses, the holding duce, if not eliminate, Nigeria's dependence on im-
company's annual revenue in 2016 was more than ported petroleum products (fuels). Better still, in
$4 billion. Operating in 17 African countries, the the long term, the ambition is to make the country
group is a Conglomerate with business interests in a full-fledged exporter and increase the country's
various sectors, including packaging materials pro- GDP.
duction, real estate, cement, sugar and salt refi- This dynamic in which the Dangote group is invol-
ning, port operations, and the fertilizer and petroc- ved has another challenge, that of preventing capi-
hemical industry. The Dangote Group is now inves- tal outflows, creating thousands of jobs, and streng-
ting more in oil refining to propel the development thening local production capacity. What is certain
of this sector in the sub-region and especially in is that the holding company continues to gain no-
Nigeria. toriety, as evidenced by its presence in several Afri-
can countries and its partnerships with local and
Dangote Group projects international investors.
Although it stands out particularly in the field of
cement, the flagship project of the Dangote Group
that attracts admiration is the Lekki oil mega-refi-
nery in Lagos. Initially scheduled for 2019, the pro-
ject has been slowed down considerably by the co-
vid-19 crisis, but it will be commissioned.
According to estimates at the start of the project,
the initial cost was around $14 billion, but this has
increased by $5 billion, according to the executive
director of Dangote Industries, Devakumar Edwin.
According to Aliko Dangote, everything including
the mechanical work is already at the end and by
the 4ᵉ quarter of 2022, the refinery can be officially
operational. For the start, a processing capacity of
540,000 barrels per day is expected.
Specifically, when the refinery reaches its full po-
tential, it should be able to supply more than 12%
of Africa's product demand according to the
African Petroleum Producers Organization (APPO).
It is worth remembering that in July 2022, the pro-
ject was given a boost thanks to a bond issue on the
Nigerian stock exchange that raised 187.6 billion
naira, or about $451.6 million. Dangote Refinery

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