The Chief Executive Officer of Dangote Refinery, Aliko Dangote, has disclosed that his company secured a total of $2.7 billion in loans from the Central Bank between 2013 to 2023 to finance the refinery.
This disclosure was made by Dangote at his 6500,000 barrels per day capacity refinery in Lagos, according to Nairametrics.
He clarified that the refinery had little outside funding and was mostly financed by the company’s resources.
He noted that the difficulties he faced in obtaining funding from foreign creditors were the reason he decided against project finance.
“On the loan that we got, part of the loan was taken by Dangote Industries, which is a local company. Dangote Industries got allocation from Central Bank and the total allocation that we got, including the money that we lost in terms of interest, was about $2.7 billion from 2013 to 2023.
“Out of the $2.7 billion we still have more than $200 million of forwards that we’re yet to collect from the CBN. So, it’s the total of $2.5 billion we got from the CBN in real cash which was paid in terms of interest and principal payment,” Dangote said.
The business tycoon further said that, despite what is often believed, his refinery was not the cause of CBN’s foreign exchange account depletion.
Accordingly, Dangote said once the refinery begins to make a profit, it will begin payment of the loan as soon as possible.
“Dangote Industries as soon as they get their dividends are bringing that money back to sell in the local market. They’re bringing that money back into Nigeria.
“There’s no money we’ve taken away from Nigeria. And the one that we took, we’ll return it back. So it’s better for people to understand.
“There’s no money we’ve taken away from Nigeria. And the one that we took, we’ll return it back. So it’s better for people to understand,” he said.
He continued “It’s better for people to understand that what we took from CBN, we’re bringing it back. The thinking of people is that the majority of the Central Bank’s money was depleted by the Dangote’s major projects. We got $2.5 billion cash from Central Bank and that money will come back as soon as we start making money. Once we start making money, we’ll start paying the loans that we have.”
Nigeria’s oil regulatory agencies, especially the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), have recently clashed with the Dangote Refinery.
Dangote clarified how he funded his refinery while addressing the accusations made against him by the regulators.
In a previous statement, Dangote stated that his firm had returned $2.5 billion of the $5.5 billion it had received in loans from various banks to fund the refinery’s construction.
