Aliko Dangote, President of the Dangote Group, has stated that the four state-owned refineries operated by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited would find no buyers if put up for sale.
He made these remarks during a briefing in Lagos, attributing the dire state of Nigeria’s downstream petroleum sector to fundamental regulatory failures and a mismanaged investment climate created under the previous administration.
Dangote specifically criticized the decision by former President Muhammadu Buhari’s government to appoint a “trader” as the sector’s regulator. He argued that this was a critical error, asserting that “a trader can never be a regulator,” and described the appointment as a damaging mismatch.
According to Dangote, this flawed regulatory approach has created an environment that is deeply unfavorable for investment, discouraging both local and international investors from committing funds to Nigeria’s refining sector.
The billionaire industrialist warned that the current conditions make refinery investments highly unattractive. He emphasized that the core issue extends beyond corporate interests, stating, “the country is paying a bigger price” for these policy mistakes.
The logical conclusion, Dangote argued, is that “nobody will come and invest in this sort of thing,” rendering the NNPC’s assets commercially undesirable.
The refineries in question, located in Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna, have a combined capacity of approximately 445,000 barrels per day.
Despite repeated and costly government-funded turnaround maintenance projects over the years, these facilities have suffered from chronic underperformance and operational failures. Their inability to function has forced Nigeria, a major oil producer, to remain heavily dependent on imported refined petroleum products, a situation Dangote’s new mega-refinery aims to change.
