On Tuesday, Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote announced that he is currently investing a total of $20bn in six key projects in Nigeria. This investment is expected to generate about $15bn foreign exchange earnings annually for Nigeria. This was made known in a statement by the business mogul while he was addressing students of the Executive MBA and Owner Manager Programme of the Lagos Business School in Lagos on the topic: ‘The role of business in driving sustainable development in Africa -The story of the Dangote Group.’
What are these six key projects?
According to Dangote, the six projects include a refinery and petrochemical plant, subsea gas pipeline, fertilizer plant, rice production, sugar production and capacity expansion of the cement production subsidiary. The refinery and petrochemical project, which has the capacity to process 650,000 barrels of day of crude oil will gulp about $11bn. This facility would also ensure fuel sufficiency in Nigeria. The petrochemical plant is also expected to produce 1.3 metric tonnes of polypropylene and polyethylene yearly.
The fertilizer project which cost about $2bn will contribute to the national food security and sufficiency for Nigeria. It will also produce 2.8 million tonnes of Urea per year.
The East-West Onshore Gas Gathering Section (EWOGGS) pipeline project, which is a $3bn investment, located near Bonny Island to the Lekki Free Trade 4 zone will unlock significant gas supply for industry. It is dedicated to generating 12,000MW of power for industries.
The rice project, which is a fully integrated rice production and processing operation with a capacity to produce 960,000 metric tonnes of milled rice per annum, will meet 16 per cent of Nigeria’s rice need. Dangote has two rice mills of 120,000 MT each.
Dangote further stated that the rice project, estimated to gulp nearly $1bn, would cover 150,000 hectares of land in Adamawa, Edo, Jigawa, Kano, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Sokoto, Taraba and Zamfara states, with 40 per cent of the paddy to be provided by the Dangote Rice Outgrower Scheme.
