Aliko Dangote, The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Dangote Refinery has revealed that he has paid off $2.4bn of the $5.5bn loan for his $19bn Lagos-based refinery.
The Africa’s richest man also alleged that powerful oil cartels tried to undermine his refinery project.
Speaking at the Afreximbank Annual Meetings in Nassau, The Bahamas, on Wednesday, Dangote said his 650,000-barrel-per-day refinery will act as Nigeria’s strategic reserve, as reported by This Day Newspaper.
“We borrowed the money based on our own 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 lack of land, also the sand-filling took a long time. Almost five years or so we didn’t do anything.
“We actually started in 2018. We borrowed that much. We have actually, 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,” he said.
Dangote thanked Afreximbank and Access Bank for their support, acknowledging that many had doubted the project’s success.
He stated that the vision would have failed without their backing.
Dangote further remarked that foreign banks showed little interest in supporting Africa’s development.
He stated that both local and international interests, which he likened to a “mafia”, made repeated attempts to thwart the refinery’s completion.
“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.
Dangote, who described himself as a fighter, said they “tried all sorts” to stop him.
“But I’m a person that has been fighting all my life. You know, so I think it’s part of my life to fight,” he said.
Dangote Industries as soon as they get their dividends are bringing that money back to sell in the local market. They’re bringing that money back into Nigeria.
“There’s no money we’ve taken away from Nigeria. And the one that we took, we’ll return it back. So it’s better for people to understand.
“It’s better for people to understand that what we took from CBN, we’re bringing it back. The thinking of people is that the majority of the Central Bank’s money was depleted by the Dangote’s major projects. We got $2.5 billion cash from Central Bank and that money will come back as soon as we start making money. Once we start making money, we’ll start paying the loans that we have,”
Culled from Punch