Nigerian Refinery and Economic Growth

We don't need someone to refine, uh, take our crude to England and

France, refine it, and sell it back to us at a profit.

We don't.

We should refine it here,

and buy,

and also sell to others.

We have moved from a country using its foreign exchange to import petroleum

products

to one that potentially will be earning foreign exchange from being an

exporter, not just of crude, but also of refined products.

A few months ago, during the

crisis in the Strait of Hormuz,

the European airlines were buying aviation fuel from Dangote

Refinery.

So we have also become a source of geopolitical stability, provided

alternatives to the Middle East.

It's something that as Nigerians we should be proud of,

that an African

is building one of the ten largest refineries in the world,

that an African is finding this crude for us

and selling to us, and we are no longer dependent on imports.

It's the same story with cement.

Now, people talk about monopoly.

There is no monopoly if a monopoly is not protected by law.

Nobody says you cannot set up a refinery.

Anybody who wants to build a refinery, anybody who wants to go

and look for twenty-two billion dollars, invest,

go through what Aliko went through, build a refinery, please, you are welcome.

But do not sit down.

You've taken your money to invest in property in

Switzerland, and in France, and in England, and complain about

somebody being a monopolist. Go and sell the assets and come

and invest in Nigeria.

So we want more people to move from rent-seeking.

We want more people to move from taking money abroad to buy property

to come and invest.

You want to build a cement plant like Obajana? Please come.

We want more cement factories. We want the price of cement to come down.

Build more refineries. We want more refineries.

So let us not be talking about monopoly, monopoly, monopoly.

The only reason you have a monopoly is because he's the only one who

has taken the risk on Nigeria, and he's entitled-

-to it. Now, when I was in Central Bank, I used to call...

And this was how many years ago. I used to call Aliko Dangote a

concentration risk,

and has continued.

Because I remember a presentation they made

to the economic management team at that time, talked about their cement

pr- plans, their refinery plans, their sugar plans.

And they said, "By the time we're through, we will be sixty percent

of Nigeria's manufacturing GDP."

To be honest, I think today

the Dangote Group is more than sixty percent of the GDP.

And it's already getting to about forty percent

of the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

So if you were to invest in a company,

who would you back?

You'd have to go to them.