The President/Chief Executive of Dangote Industries Limited, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has appealed to African leaders to take deliberate steps the way the U.S., Canada, and the EU have done to protect domestic producers from unfair competition, for the continent to experience real growth and development.
Speaking at the West African Refined Fuel Conference in Abuja, Dangote stated that “to make matters worse, we are now facing increasing dumping of cheap, often toxic, petroleum products, some of which are blended to substandard levels that would never be allowed in Europe or North America”.
He cited the growing influx of discounted, low-quality fuel originating from Russia and blended with Russian crude under price caps and dumped in African markets.
According to him, the continent is handing over its economic potential to others and exporting jobs, while importing poverty back into the continent.
“So, while we produce plenty of crude, we still import over 120 million tonnes of refined petroleum products each year, effectively exporting jobs and importing poverty into our continent. That’s a $90 billion market opportunity being captured by regions with surplus refining capacity. To put this in perspective, only about 15% of African countries have a GDP greater than $90 billion. We are effectively handing over an entire continent’s economic potential to others, year after year,” local media reports quoted Dangote as saying.
He lamented that Africa is increasingly becoming a destination for cheap, often toxic petroleum products which are blended to substandard levels that would not be permitted in Europe or North America.
Dangote disclosed that due to the continent’s limited domestic refining capacity, Africa imports over 120 million tonnes of refined petroleum products annually at a cost of approximately $90 billion.
Dangote also said that despite producing around 7 million barrels of crude oil per day, Africa only refines about 40% of its 4.3 million barrels daily consumption of refined products domestically, while Europe and Asia refine over 95% of what they consume.
GIK/APA