By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man by kilometres, plans to employ 17,000 new workers in his eponymous refinery in Lagos, raising the workforce from 40,000 to 57,000 in a giant vision that also seeks to end Nigeria’s reliance on fuel imports.
The Dangote Group is both the largest integrated company in Africa and the biggest private employer in Nigeria with 30,000 workers spread across subsidiaries in cement, salt, and sugar, manufacturing and packaging plants.
If the Group succeeds in its ambition to create 750,000 new jobs in the next few years and thereafter raise it to one million, it will overtake the federal government as the biggest employer of labour in Nigeria.
Dangote Refinery is being constructed at a cost of $15 billion, and when completed, it will be Africa’s biggest oil refinery and the world’s biggest single-train facility. It will also be the fifth largest company in Africa.
Developing human capacity
The plant is expected to refine 650,000 barrels per day (bpd) and is already developing oil and gas human capacity for future oil projects in Nigeria, boosted by the new Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), said a statement issued by Dangote Group.
The statement, signed by Corporate Communications Group Head, Anthony Chiejina, quoted Dangote himself.
Dangote disclosed that the refinery currently employs 29,000 Nigerians and 11,000 foreigners, a ratio of about three Nigerians to one expatriate, with a projected increase for local talent in the new additions.
Per Daily Trust, Dangote also reiterated recently on Arise TV that the refinery project remains the biggest in Africa and one of the biggest in the world where many are being trained to build in-country capacity.
“When we started the project, we were supposed to bring a lot of foreign workers, but as we speak today, we have [fewer] than 11,000 expatriates. We have almost 29,000 Nigerian workers that are getting massive training.”
Ending fuel imports
Dangote told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that building the refinery was informed by his desire to help the country tackle petroleum products’ importation, describing it as an investment that would transform economies across Africa.
His words: “It makes me feel terrible to see a country as big and resourceful as Nigeria with a high population, importing all its petroleum products, so, we decided it is time to tackle this challenge.
“It is not government’s responsibility alone to address the challenge of petroleum products’ importation in Nigeria. No, we have to collaborate with the government to tackle the issue of petroleum importation.
“We are creating a lot of capacity in the country, which will be of great help for future oil projects in Nigeria, most especially, with the opening up of the oil industry through the new Petroleum Industry Act.
“It means that the country can boast of human capacity, needed in the oil and gas sector. Most of these Nigerians can compete anywhere in the world, in terms of electrical, welding, mechanical erection, etc. We have actually created massive capacity.
“We should not as a country be comfortable with generating revenue from crude oil export alone, because tomorrow, people may not need crude oil.
“If we do not move from crude oil to something else, we will have issues as a country. This is one of the things that I took upon myself to help address.’’
Dangote Refinery
Dangote Refinery is an integrated refinery under construction in the Lekki Free Zone in Lagos, expected to produce 650,000 bpd when completed.
Its pipeline infrastructure is regarded as the largest anywhere in the world, with 1,100 kilometres to handle 3 billion Standard Cubic Foot of gas per day.
The refinery alone has a 400mw power plant that can meet the requirements of electricity distribution companies (DisCos) in Ibadan, Nigeria’s third largest city (after Lagos and Kano) with a population of about 6.7 million.
The refinery is expected to meet 100 per cent Nigeria’s refined petroleum products requirements and have surplus of each product for export.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has secured approval from Abuja to acquire a 20 per cent stake worth $2.76 billion in Dangote Refinery, which is planned for commissioning by the first quarter of 2022.