The President of the Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has questioned Nigeria’s persistent power supply challenges, noting that if his company can generate over 1,500 megawatts for its own use, the country has no excuse for producing just 4,500 to 5,000 megawatts.

Dangote said Nigeria should be targeting at least 60,000 megawatts to support its development goals.

Speaking during a recent tour of the Dangote Refinery in Lagos, he stressed the importance of increased private sector involvement in the energy sector.

“We as a company alone are producing, group-wide for our own consumption, over 1,500 MW.

“So, Nigeria should not be three times what we are producing as a country. Nigeria should be at about 50,000 MW to 60,000 MW,” Dangote said.

He described the progress at the refinery as clear evidence that large-scale industrial projects are achievable in Nigeria, including those in the power sector.

“What we have done here just shows that there’s nothing impossible. All this can be replicated in our power sector. There’s no reason why Nigeria should be doing 5,000 MW,” he said.

The business mogul noted that constructing the refinery was a more complex task than increasing Nigeria’s power capacity to 30,000 megawatts.

He emphasized that developing the country’s power infrastructure should not be left solely to the government, stressing that meaningful private sector involvement is both essential and attainable.

“What we have actually done here is much more difficult than making Nigeria 25,000 or 30,000 megawatts of power, with transmission and distribution. But it’s not the work of government alone,” he said.

He pointed out that the power sector had already been privatised and urged wealthy Nigerians to channel their capital into the local economy rather than moving it abroad.

He said, “We have already asked the government to leave the sector. It’s supposed to be privatised. They have privatised it.

“We, the private sector, Nigerians, most especially us, should stop taking our money abroad and invest the money here to make sure that we develop our own country and continent, because without us showing the confidence that, yes, we have confidence in our own economy and the leadership of the country, foreigners will not come.

“We know our leaders; we have confidence in them. So, that money they’re taking out of the country, they should leave it here so that it can benefit everybody.”