Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, has built a business empire that has single-handedly initiated Nigeria into the global prestigious club of finished goods exporters.
Nigeria had for decades been content with the export of raw materials like crude oil, cocoa beans and cassava tubers.
Dangote came into the scene and changed all that. He first ended the cement armada that saw hundreds of ships loaded with cement congesting Apapa Port in the 1970s as the federal government battled cement scarcity in a desperate bid to effect reconstruction after the bloody civil war. Hundreds of ships loaded with cement spent months in the sea waiting for their turns to berth and off-load the precious commodity.
In the process the federal government chalked up millions of dollars in demurrage.
Lafarge Cement, maker of the Elephant Cement brand in Nigeria, was very reluctant to invest in the industry. The company offered millions of excuses for its inability to expand its operations. The excuses sounded plausible until Dangote took a plunge into the industry.
He entered with maximum force and exposed Lafarge’s lame excuses. Today, Lafarge is a distant second in the industry it led for decades. Dangote has cement factories in 10 countries in Africa with a combined annual capacity for 52 million tonnes.
The company has four major cement factories in Nigeria with combined capacity for 35.95 million tonnes. Lafarge is still light years behind with installed capacity of 10.5 million tonnes per annum. Dangote has made Nigeria a major exporter of cement.
The company churned out a record $3.2 billion as turnover for 2025. Its profit after tax (PAT) was $730 million. It offered a dividend of N45 per share.
It is perhaps in the turbulent downstream sector of Nigeria’s oil industry that Dangote has performed what could be described as an economic miracle. The foreign companies drilling oil in Nigeria had all dismissed the federal government’s calls for the establishment of refineries with a contemptuous wave of the hand.
Their excuse was that no refinery will survive in Nigeria under a regulated pump price of petrol. Dangote defied that foreign scare and succeeded in persuading investment banks in the international money market to fund his construction of a refinery in Nigeria.
The fact that the international investment banks were willing to advance loans close to $20 billion for the project was a clear indication that the foreign oil companies in Nigeria were telling lies about the inauspiciousness of operating a refinery in Nigeria.
Dangote dared the world and built the refinery. The operators of the refineries in Europe that were supplying Nigeria with expensive refined petroleum products saw Dangote Refinery as an obstacle to their thriving business.
They conspired with Nigerian importers of petrol to thwart work on the Dangote Refinery. The man dared them and completed work on the refinery. Even after the refinery came on stream with its invaluable reward to Nigeria’s economy, it is still being persecuted by petrol importers who would prefer Nigeria to remain impoverished as it washes down $20 billion annually on refined petroleum products imports.
Ironically, the refineries in Europe that wanted the Dangote Refinery dead at the construction stage are now beckoning on it to bail them out with jet fuel as US President Donald Trump’s war with Iran makes it dangerous to freight petroleum products through the Strait of Hormuz.
Strangely enough, Dangote Refinery with its huge gains to Nigeria’s economy is still being persecuted by those who are supposed to make it succeed. Nigeria is the largest exporter of crude oil in Africa. Ironically, it is struggling for the top slot in the importation of crude oil.
In 2025 Dangote Refinery imported crude oil worth $3.7 billion for its operations even as it was still not operating at the full capacity of 650, 000 barrels per day. At full capacity, Dangote Refinery uses 19.5 million barrels of crude oil monthly. It gets just 5 million barrels from Nigeria. The rest is imported. Dangote buys Nigerian crude at a premium in the international market and ships it home at extra cost.
Consequently, the landing cost of imported petrol is N94 per litre lower than Dangote Refinery petrol. The economy is plagued by the ambivalence of cheap, imported petrol.
This is a strange development given the gains Nigeria derives from the refinery. In 2025, Dangote Refinery raked in $5.8 billion into Nigeria’s foreign reserves from the exports of refined petroleum products.
The foreign reserve is gaining from the demand and supply ends from the operations of the Dangote Refinery. Even with the obnoxious issuance of licenses to petrol importers when Dangote Refinery produces more than enough of the product, its operations have drastically reduced the demand pressure for foreign exchange in Nigeria’s foreign reserves.
If Nigeria were a country that openly supports its domestic producers of essential commodities, we would not be spending a dime any longer on refined petroleum products imports. Dangote Refinery is capable of satisfying both domestic demand and a huge chunk of the demand from other parts of Africa.
Dangote Refinery is equally boosting the supply end of the country’s foreign reserves even when it was operating at less than 60 per cent of its installed capacity. Now that it is operating at the full capacity of 650,000 barrels per day, the nation’s foreign reserves should be expecting a bumper harvest from the refinery’s refined petroleum products exports.
Like Aliko Dangote said at the commencement of operations in the refinery in 2024, Nigeria will be expecting anything from $30 billion from the refinery’s refined petroleum products exports. Dangote Refinery is here to stay. The refinery has the weight and resilience of Africa’s richest man behind it. No one can pull it down.
Even the operators of the refineries in Europe that Dangote seized their markets are now praying for it to succeed and save them from the pangs of Trump’s war with Iran.
Very soon Nigerian importers of petrol will join the refinery operators in Europe to pray for the success of Dangote Refinery. They have no options.
