The President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has made an offer to sell the Dangote Refinery to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL).
He was speaking in an exclusive interview with Premium Times on Sunday.
The Richest Man in Africa expressed his willingness to sell the refinery to address allegations of monopoly in the industry.
“Let them (NNPCL) buy me out and run the refinery the best way they can. They have labelled me a monopolist. That’s an incorrect and unfair allegation, but it’s OK. If they buy me out, at least, their so-called monopolist would be out of the way.
“We have been facing fuel crisis since the 70s. This refinery can help in resolving the problem but it does appear some people are uncomfortable that I am in the picture. So I am ready to let go, let the NNPC buy me out, run the refinery,” Premium Times quoted him as saying.
This is sequel to the claim of the Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, Farouk Ahmed, that the Dangote refinery had requested the regulator to stop giving import licences to other marketers to be the only fuel supplier in Nigeria.
“We cannot rely heavily on one refinery to feed the nation, because Dangote is requesting that we should suspend or stop importation of all petroleum products, especially AGO and direct all marketers to the refinery, that is not good for the nation in terms of energy security. And that is not good for the market, because of monopoly,” Ahmed stated in a video interview with State House correspondents.
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