With the start of operations at the Dangote Refinery and Petrochemicals, the Federal Government might save nearly N35tn in fiscal expenditure over the next five years.
This information was released on Monday by Godwin Emefiele, the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, at the opening ceremony for the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemical Facility in Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos.
Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), who officially opened the refinery, the largest single-train petroleum refiner in the world, claimed that his administration had made a conscious effort to ensure public-private cooperation.
He characterized the refinery as a turning point for the Nigerian economy and a game-changer for the continent of Africa’s downstream petroleum sector. According to Dangote, the refinery will begin supplying refined goods to the Nigerian market in July of this year, as operators requested the Federal Government to ensure transparency in the supply of crude oil to the 650,000 barrels per day crude oil processing refinery.
He also said the refinery plans to export to 53 African countries which depend on other countries for petroleum products. The CBN governor added that the cost of fuel subsidy may hit N4.4tn by the end of 2022. He said, “This project will equally provide support to the fiscal operations of the government as it could help ease budget constraints of funding the petroleum subsidy and engender fiscal savings.