President of Dangote Industries Limited, Aliko Dangote, has clarified that the recent reduction in the price of Premium Motor Spirit, commonly known as petrol, to N899.50 per litre at its loading gantry was primarily driven by the complex dynamics of market forces.

He also said it is his responsibility to safeguard both the interests and the investments of the multibillion dollar company.

The business tycoon made these statements during an interview in an Arise TV documentary posted on YouTube and obtained by our correspondent on Wednesday.

He said, “The price reduction is a response to the market, let me just put it that way. It is a refinery where we invested over $20bn and I think we have to try and protect our interests and also our investments.”

On December 19, 2024, the Dangote refinery reduced the ex-depot price of its petrol from N970 to N899.50 per litre.

This sparked intense pricing competition in the downstream sector, forcing the NNPCLto to reduce its ex-depot price to N899 per litre.

Similarly, the refinery announced its partnership with MRS Petrol station to sell petrol from its retail outlets nationwide at N935 per litre, to the delight of Nigerians.

Speaking further in the interview, Dangote reiterated that the 650,000 barrels per day refinery will not only transform Nigeria’s oil sector but also the country’s entire economy.

He stressed that when the country imports petroleum products, there is more pressure on foreign exchange.

“40 per cent of our demand on foreign exchange is through people dealing in petroleum products and the more we allow imports to come in, not because I do not want imports, but the more we allow imports to come in, the more we keep using most of our foreign exchange out of the country because the majority of those letters of credit open for petroleum products and the goods are not coming into Nigeria,” he said.

“There is nothing you would do that you won’t get criticism for. But I think we cannot also control people from speaking their minds.”

Dangote reiterated that he was open to criticism, adding that in the history of Nigeria, in the last 100 years, “nobody has put in $20bn in any project”.

“Criticism will not stop us from continuing with what we are doing. I did this project because of my love for my country and to make sure that I have a legacy project. If I invested this money in Google or Apple, my investment would be more, and I wouldn’t be having the headache that I’m having today.

“So, I think it is patriotism that made me do this. I would rather leave a legacy behind. I’m not a rich man. I’m a wealthy man. And wealthy people, what they do is to create work for the generality of people, not to amass cash for themselves.”

He further described the $1bn investment by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company in the refinery as “a drop in the ocean.”

“In 2021, when we signed the agreement, even if you give us $1bn, $1bn is a drop in the ocean in a $20bn refinery,” Dangote said.

“When NNPC said, ‘Give us one more year, we want to change the agreement, we would rather pay you cash,’ because people didn’t understand this issue about the $2 deduction on the crude.

“Can we make sure that there’s clarity around it? So what do you want? So they said they would pay us cash, and we should give them one more year.

“We gave them one more year. So from June last year to June this year. So on June 4th or 5th, I called NNPC and they gave us a week.”

Dangote said sometime later, the NNPC decided to back out of the transaction abruptly when the payment was due.

“I said, okay, fine. We just walked away and we just continued. But we still went ahead, we finished our refinery. Our refinery is operating,” he said.

Speaking further, Dangote said it is very “cheeky and nasty for the person who ever came up with that nonsense, saying that NNPC gave us $1bn to assist us in our liquidity crisis”.

He added that “it’s not true; these are just a bunch of lies”.

On his part, the Vice President, Dangote Industries Ltd., Devakumar Edwin, revealed that the facility now refines 350,000 barrels of crude per day.

“The full capacity is 650,000 barrels per day; what we are now doing is going around 350,000 because the idea is, till I start the refinery in full, there is no point for me to be pushing at the production level because the full refinery is operational, we will be making money.

“Well, the Nigerian crude production is more than double our requirements. So there is more than available crude within Nigeria,” he said.