History was made on tuesday 3rd September 2024 when Africa's richest man Aliko Dangote finally unveiled the much awaited Petroleum products to the market
The $20bn refinery ( the biggest in Africa) became a dream come true for Nigerians or so they thought since they were of the opinion that this will reduce the astronomical price of the product
But down the line that hope has been dashed based on the continued rise in the prices of petroleum
The blame game has been own between Dangote, NNPCL and Independent marketers
But the focus for me is on Dangote Refinery
Dangote has blamed marketers for not lifting his products
But the question remains if Dangote is selling cheaper, Marketers will patronize him
Marketers are business people who will always go to the place where profit will be maximize
What is the benefit of having a refinery in Nigeria if imported products can be cheaper ?
Do we also consider the fact that we are an oil producing country?
Look at all the top oil producing countries in the world and check the ratio of the price of pms to the average daily income of the people and know how expensive pms is in Nigeria
Quality shouldn’t be a determining factor because Nigerians deserve top quality ,do you know how many businesses that was starved of FX during the process of the project???
Did Dangote buy dollars from the parallel market
At what percentage interest rate did he borrow from Nigeria ?
Shouldn’t we benefit for having a refinery in our country?
A country with a minimum wage of N70,000 and one of the lowest per capital income in the world , having such high price for petroleum products shall not augur well for our economy
Nigeria as a country supported this project,from the government to the people.
So many costs have been taken off the shelf including landing and ferry costs
Dangote refinery shouldn’t just guarantee availability but also affordability
Yes it is not charity but certain level of concession should be given and anything above 1k at the gas stations is unaffordable and shouldn’t be encouraged.
The government said they will transact with Dangote refinery in our local currency and all we should do is call for a subsidized FX that will not exceed 1k to a dollar as their exchange rate ..
We deserve more than just having products everywhere that cannot be afforded by the people
Part ( 2 ).. Coming
When Will NNPCL Refineries Start Operations
Chris Kehinde Nwandu a Law Graduate is Executive Editor CKNNews