By Just recently, the president of the federal republic of Nigeria, MuhammaduBuhari, inaugurated the first indigenous refinery in Nigeria, the $18.5 billion Dangote Petroleum Refinery, in Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos. Owner of the facility, Africa’s richest man and global business icon, AlhajiAlikoDangote, received tons of applause and massive ovation from the crème de la crème of the business world.
Heads of State from Ghana, Togo, Niger, and Senegal, and a representative of President of Chad graced the event.
Buhari said the modern refinery would enable Nigeria achieve self-sufficiency in refined products and even have surplus for export. He said he was optimistic President-elect Bola Tinubu would sustain the enhanced business environment that facilitated such a project.
Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Godwin Emefiele, in his goodwill message at the event, disclosed that the Dangote Group had paid back about 70 per cent of the loans it took to construct the refinery. Emefiele highlighted economic gains from the project to include savings of up to $30 billion annually in foreign exchange, and additional $10 billion in inflows.
Dangote announced that the first refined petroleum products from the refinery would be in the Nigerian market by the end of July or beginning of August. He promised to satisfy Nigeria’s domestic demand for petroleum products.
The question is, how does this refinery affect the common Nigerian people? What is the impact of this refinery on the Nigerian economy?
In a functional system, the just inaugurated refinery would yield more taxes to the Nigerian economy, thus, increasing internally generated revenue, this in turn would influence annual budgeting for infrastructural development.
The refinery will be buying crude oil form Nigeria, making the naira to circulate more within the economy.
Production and exportation would increase excite taxes. There will also be influx of foreign exchange because of exportation to other countries. . It is on record that the refinery has over 100,000 jobs already. Capital flight will reduce due to increased employment rate, and prices of product will begin to stabilize, especially those products that are purchased from international markets
Finally, lots of economic activities will be going on around the location of the refinery in Lekki-Epe, Lagos. These and many more are the direction of the impact this refinery will have on the Nigerian economy.
