As access to foreign exchange bits harder, Pan-African conglomerate, the Dangote Group has said it is currently driving six major projects which will yield foreign exchange earnings of about $15 billion annually for the nation.
President of the Group, Aliko Dangote presented the plan while addressing students of Executive MBA and Owner Manager Programme of the Lagos Business School in Lagos on the topic: “The Role of Business in Driving Sustainable Development in Africa-The Story of The Dangote Group.”
He disclosed that the company is investing a total of $20 billion on these six key projects including Refinery and Petrochemicals, Sub-Sea Gas pipeline, Fertilizer, local Rice production, local Sugar Production and Cement capacity expansion.
In his further explanation, Dangote said the refinery & petrochemical project with capacity to process 650, 000 bpd and which will gulp $11 billion will ensure fuel sufficiency for Nigeria, while the petrochemical plant will produce 1.3m mtpa polypropylene and polyethylene
he said “The fertilizer project at a cost of $2 billion will contribute to national food security and sufficiency for Nigeria. It will produce 2.8 million Tons of Urea Per Year.
“The EWOGGS pipeline project on which $3billion will be sunk and located near Bonny Island to Lekki Free Trade zone will unlock significant gas supply for industry and supply gas to generate 12,000 MW of power.
“The rice project, a fully integrated rice production and processing operation with capacity to produce 960,000 MT of milled rice per annum will meet 16 per cent of Nigeria’s rice needs. It has two rice mills of 240,000 MT / season, two crop seasons in a year.”
He revealed fuehrer that the rice projects estimated to gulp $1 billion will cover 150,000 Ha across Adamawa, Edo, Jigawa, Kano, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Sokoto, Taraba and Zamfara states. 40 per cent of paddy will be provided by Dangote Rice Outgrower Scheme to boost supply.
Commenting on the sugar backward integration project, the Dangote Group president said this will ensure self-sufficiency in sugar, saying, “The Sugar projects covers 150,000 Ha across Adamawa, Sokoto, Kebbi, Jigawa, Taraba, Kogi and Kwara States and will produce 1.5 mn MT refined sugar per annum. We are investing $1 billion and the approach is to have two phases over the next 10 years. The project has the Potential to discourage insurgency in the North East through massive job creation.”
It would be recalled that the company’s cement capacity expansion has been a continuous process and has seen it establishing its presence in some 19 countries of the world with the ambition to the six largest cement producers in the world in 2019 with 77 mmt yearly capacity across board.
