The President and CEO of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, stated that Nigeria’s four NNPC Limited refineries would struggle to attract buyers if offered for sale, pointing to regulatory hurdles and investment challenges.

Dangote blamed the current crisis in the downstream sector on regulatory mismanagement under the previous administration.

“During the last administration of President [Muhammadu] Buhari, there was a big mistake that was made by putting a trader as a regulator. A trader can never be a regulator, and I think that was a mismatch,” Dangote stated.

He made this remarks said at a press briefing on Sunday in Lagos.

He noted that this mismatch has created a challenging investment climate, deterring both local and foreign investors.

“The crisis that we’re facing is actually due to this, and what is actually paining me is that the country is paying a bigger price,” he said.

Dangote cautioned that the current environment is unfavorable for investment in refineries.

“The higher price is that nobody will come and invest in this sort of thing. Even if the NNPC today wants to sell the refineries, there can never be a buyer. Why? Because the environment is not conducive for anybody to come and put his money and set up a refinery,” he added.

The state-owned refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna, which together have a capacity of 445,000 barrels per day, have consistently underperformed despite substantial Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) funding, forcing continued reliance on fuel imports.