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Africa’s richest man and president of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has declared that the business environment in Nigeria was not conducive for any investor to be interested in buying the refineries operated by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Limited.
Dangote made the statement during a press briefing on Sunday in Lagos, noting that even if the government puts up the refineries for sale, buyers would not turn up.
According to him, the operating and regulatory environment makes it difficult for any investor to want to come into the nation’s refinery sub-sector.
“The higher price is that nobody will come and invest in this sort of thing. Even if the NNPC today wants to sell the refineries, there can never be a buyer. Why? Because the environment is not conducive for anybody to come and put their money and set up a refinery,” he stated.
Dangote also blamed the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari for making a mistake in the oil sector by putting a trader as a regulator, leading to a case of regulatory mismanagement.
“During the last administration of President [Muhammadu] Buhari, there was a big mistake that was made by putting a trader as a regulator. A trader can never be a regulator, and I think that was a mismatch,” Dangote added.
He submitted that the situation has created a difficult investment climate, discouraging both local and foreign investors.
“The crisis that we’re facing is actually due to this, and what is actually paining me is that the country is paying a bigger price,” he said.
Nigeria has its refineries located in Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna, with a total capacity of 445,000 bpd.
