Dangote Refinery… My View - SLS

I honestly do not think it a good idea for me to make comments on these issues but some comments surprise me, and I just have to say something.

Aliko Dangote did not fix the price at which the CBN sold dollars. Everyone who got dollars from the CBN got dollars at the same rate if they bought on the same day. So we cannot blame him for buying dollars at a rate the CBN itself decided to sell to its customers.

So the question for me is this. Let us forget the man Dangote. If the Central Bank were to prioritize a single enterprise for forex allocation how many enterprises can we think of that are worthier than a refinery like this one?

Consider the drain on our forex from importing petroleum products; the tens of billions of dollars of forex spent abroad; the huge losses due to theft in the name of subsidy.

By the way, how much forex did Dangote buy from the CBN at this subsidized rate? How much forex did NNPC take from the Federation account in the same year in the name of running and turning around its dead refineries? What are we benchmarking against?

If any Nigerian came to me as Central Bank Governor with a project like this refinery I would recognize immediately its potential impact on the economy and give it all the support needed.

Let our views on forex policies not becloud our sense of priorities. Once the CBN decided to sell dollars at below market it would be forced to ration the limited dollars available.

To my mind, giving dollars for the construction of a refinery is better than to rice importers and indeed almost every other enterprise apart from education and health, given the impact on the macro.

As for the argument of NNPC that relying on one refinery is bad for our energy security this is most laughable. On the contrary relying on a local refinery is far more secure than these imports.

It is a very rich argument from an entity that had taken billions of dollars in the name of turn around maintenance and not produced a drop of product from four refineries becaus it is more profitable to continue extracting rent in the name of subsidy. If NNPC activated its refineries there would be no monopoly. And then we can see the sulphur content of its products and compare to Dangote's.

Until then, keeping quiet is the honourable option for it.

NNPC and its spinoffs have lost any right to talk until they fix the mess they have thrown us into.

In any case if the Dangote refinery is unable to meet local demand the gap can be filled by imports.

These people in NNPC do not want to end their lucrative subsidy scam and I dont think they will end it. But as a nation if we do not thank Dangote for what he has done as an African to deal a hammer blow to multi nationals and the rentier system and for structural change in this economy through value added in various sectors we should not condemn him.

Also we tend to repeat stories without evidence. We hear about Dangote getting favourable taxation but no one has said what this tax is, if he got it alone or if it was offered to a sector or to pioneers, and if such a practice is in fact normal to encourage investment.

Instead of killing Dangote we should try and make more like him! Nigeria always kills its heroes and its best because of envy and pettiness. – SLS