Aliko Dangote, Chairman of Dangote Group has revealed that the company has paid off $2.4 billion out of its $5.5 billion loan.
The loan was taken for the construction of the $19 billion worth 650,000 barrels per day refinery.
He made this known at the Afreximbank Annual Meetings in Nassau, the Bahamas, on Wednesday.
“We borrowed the money based on our balance sheet. I think we borrowed just over $5.5bn. But we paid also a lot of interest as we went along, because the project was delayed because of a lack of land, also the sand-filling took a long time. Almost five years or so we didn’t do anything,” THISDAY reported.
“We started in 2018. We borrowed that much. We have, of course, paid interest and some principal, about $2.4bn. We’ve done very well. We now have only about $2.7bn left to be paid. So we’ve done very well for a project of that magnitude.”
Africa’s wealthiest man said powerful oil cartels tried to undermine his refinery project.
“Well, I knew that there would be a fight. But I didn’t know that the mafia in oil, they are stronger than the mafia in drugs. I can tell you that. Yes, it’s a fact,” he stated.
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