Dangote plans construction of Nigeria’s largest seaport

Aliko Dangote is forging ahead with a proposal to build a seaport in Ogun State to facilitate exports, including liquefied natural gas.

The move is expected to accelerate an expansion of Mr Dangote’s conglomerate, Bloomberg reported on Monday, citing an interview with Africa’s richest man.

An application to authorities last month, according to the outlet, sought “to build the biggest, deepest port in Nigeria” in Olokola.

The free trade zone was initially considered as the host of Mr Dangote’s mega oil refinery and petrochemical plant, now situated on the outskirts of Lagos, before an impasse with the government thwarted the plan.

The port is conceived to connect the Dangote group’s logistics and export operations in Lagos, including Lekki Deep Sea Port, through which it currently ships petroleum products and fertilisers overseas.

“It’s not that we want to do everything by ourselves, but I think doing this will encourage other entrepreneurs to come into it,” Bloomberg quoted Mr Dangote as saying.

Betting on LNG exports requires the laying of pipelines from the Niger Delta, all the way to Lagos, an ambitious pursuit intended to overtake Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG) as Africa’s biggest LNG exporter.

“We want to do a major project to bring more gas than what NLNG is doing today,” said Devakumar Edwin, a vice president of the group.

“We know where there is a lot of gas, so run a pipeline all through and then bring it to the shore,” he added.

The group exports fertiliser to the US, Brazil, Mexico, India, and recently disclosed an aspiration to set up a fertiliser plant in Ethiopia, which will help Africa’s second most populous nation develop production capacity.

The ambition is, nevertheless, far bigger than that, given plans to topple Qatar as the foremost manufacturer of urea in the next 40 months and to also make Africa self-sufficient in fertiliser within the same time frame.

The 650,000 barrel-per-day refinery, the continent’s largest, began operations in 2024 after years of construction delays.

Construction of storage tanks to hold a minimum of 1.6 million litres of petrol and diesel in Namibia is in the works.

Mr Dangote hopes to list the petrochemical business on the local stock exchange in Lagos this year and the refinery on the bourse next year.

By Ronald Adamolekun, BBC

Video - Analyst reflects on late Nigerian President Buhari's legacy

Policy analyst Christopher Ogunmodede examines former Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari’s triumphs and challenges as a military officer and civilian president.

CGTN

Billions wasted on broken refineries - Africa's richest man tells his side of the story

Dangote, CEO of the Dangote group recently called into question the likelihood of the state-owned Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna refineries being operational again.

He did this at his own oil refinery, where he gave members of the Global CEO Africa from the Lagos Business School a tour of the facility while highlighting the ludicrous amount already spent on reviving the state-owned refineries.

Dangote specified that his refinery, which he initiated after the country's 16th head of state, the late President Umar Yar'adua's cancelled his plans to acquire government refineries, now produces more than 50% of its output in the form of Premium Motor Spirit (petrol), while even government refineries only devote 22% of their output to this product.

“The refineries that we bought before, which were owned by Nigeria, were doing about 22 per cent of PMS. We bought the refineries in January 2007. Then we had to return them to the government because there was a change of government,” he stated.

“And the managing director at that time convinced Yar’adua that the refineries would work. They said they just gave them to us as a parting gift or so.

And as of today, they have spent about $18bn on those refineries, and they are still not working. And I don’t think, and I doubt very much if they will work,” he added.

The Nigerian billionaire emphasized that the refineries' turnaround maintenance was similar to attempting to update a car that was manufactured forty years ago, even though technology had since evolved, as reported by the Punch.

“(The turnaround maintenance) is like you trying to modernize a car that was built 40 years ago, when technology and everything have changed.

Even if you change the engine, the body will not be able to take the shock of that new technology engine,” he elaborated.

Dangote's statement corroborated the claims of Yar’adua predecessor, former president Olusegun Obasanjo last year on the refineries, two of which were closed when Mele Kyari, the former NNPC Group Managing Director, declared them open.

The NNPC understood it was unable to handle the refineries, according to Obasanjo, who further stated that when he asked foreign oil corporations like Shell to run the facilities, they refused.

Aliko Dangote and other Nigerians had invested $750 million to gain control of the refineries, but his successor Yar'adua annulled the agreement, according to Obasanjo.

What Obasanjo had said

“So, why do we do this kind of thing to ourselves? NNPC knew that they could not do it, but they knew they could eat and carry on with the corruption that was going on in NNPC. When people were there to do it, they put pressure. In a civilized society, those people should be in jail,”

Obasanjo had stated. Again, in January, Obasanjo said, “I was told not too long ago that since that time, more than $2bn have been squandered on the refineries and they still will not work.

“If a company like Shell tells me what they told me, I will believe them. If anybody tells you now that it (the refinery) is working, why are they now with Aliko (Dangote)? And Aliko will make his refinery work; not only make it work, he will make it deliver.”

By Chinedu Okafor, Business Insider Africa

Security forces kill 30 gunmen after armed attacks in northwest Nigeria

Nigerian security forces have killed at least 30 gunmen after armed attacks in the country’s troubled northwest, authorities said Thursday.

The joint police and military operation occurred Wednesday after hundreds of armed men attacked several villages, State Commissioner for Home Affairs Nasir Mua’zu said in a statement.

Mua’zu said three police officers and two soldiers died during the counter-attack which was launched against the gunmen who attacked the villages Tuesday evening.

“We are working tirelessly with federal security agencies to ensure the safety of all citizens,” he said.

In recent months, the northwestern and north-central regions of Nigeria have recorded an uptick in attacks by armed gangs on communities in these regions. Hundreds have been killed and injured in the attacks.

Bandit groups are known for mass killings and kidnappings for ransom in the country’s conflict-battered north. Most of the groups are made up of former herders in conflict with settled communities.

Dozens of armed groups take advantage of the limited security presence in Nigeria’s mineral-rich northwestern region, carrying out attacks on villages and along major roads. Kidnappings for ransom have become a lucrative way for bandit groups to fund other crimes and control villages.

Aside from the conflict in the country’s north-central and northwest, Nigeria is battling to contain an insurgency in the northeast where some 35,000 civilians have been killed and more than 2 million displaced, according to the U.N.

By, Dyepkazah Shibayan, AP

Nigeria rejects US push to accept Venezuelan deportees

Nigeria has pushed back on accepting Venezuelans deported from the United States, after US media reported President Donald Trump was urging African countries to take in deportees from around the world.

Deporting people to third countries has been a hallmark of the Trump administration's crackdown on undocumented migrants, notably by sending hundreds to a notorious prison in El Salvador.

"The US is mounting considerable pressure on African countries to accept Venezuelans to be deported from the US, some straight out of prisons," Nigerian Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar said in an interview with Channels Television on Thursday.

"It will be difficult for Nigeria to accept Venezuelan prisoners. We have enough problems of our own," he added.

Tuggar also suggested the US motivation for threatening tariffs against the Brics political bloc – of which Nigeria is a member – was related to the issue of deportations.

Trump has announced a 10 percent tariff on Nigerian goods exported to the US.

Contentious deportations

The president of Guinea-Bissau told reporters that Trump had raised the issue of deportations to third-countries but "he didn't ask us to take immigrants back".

RFI