Wale Edun: Petrol supply by Dangote refinery indicates Nigeria’s march to industrialisation

Wale Edun, minister of finance and coordinating minister of the economy, says the commencement of petrol supply from the Dangote Petroleum Refinery is a resumption of Nigeria’s march to industrialisation.

Earlier today, Dangote refinery announced that the company had started loading petrol into Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited trucks.

Speaking at the Dangote Petroleum Refinery facility on Sunday, Edun said the resumption of local refining of petrol in the country marks a new beginning.

“The supply of Petroleum products, in this particular case PMS, across to the Nigerian market was failed in naira. As I’ll explain, in many ways it is the resumption of Nigeria’s march to industrialization. It is in return to something that we had before — local refinery, local supply of petroleum products in the Nigerian market,” Edun said.

“It has been decades since we have been able to achieve this, and we have it today.” 

Edun thanked President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for ensuring that the federal executive council intervened in the sale of crude oil by NNPC to the Dangote refinery and the supply of petroleum products by the refinery.

“Today, we have taken an important step, a key step, towards energy self-sufficiency in Nigeria. We have taken an important step in energy security in Nigeria, not to talk of self-reliance and implementation of the government’s policy of domestic investment or investment in domestic production,” he said.

“It is the vision of Mr. President that no raw material should leave the shores of Nigeria without some value being added.

“So once again, I know that this vision of Mr. President started many, many years ago. We are in a free zone; we started Lekki Lagos Free Zone. We have this free port across the world, that’s a free zone. And we have this Dangote refinery and petrochemicals company, which is in a free zone.”

EDUN: CRITICS SAID DANGOTE REFINERY COULDN’T PRODUCE PMS

Speaking further, Edun commended Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest person, for achieving the feat, adding that detractors had said the refinery lacks the capacity to produce petrol.

“On this day of triumph, this day of success, they said it couldn’t be done. They said we couldn’t do it, that we could not produce PMS from this edifice behind us. And here now we have it that the proof of the pudding is in eating,” he said 

“We do have PMS that is sufficient for the whole of the Nigerian market. And of course, that is the ultimate objective that we produce domestically. 

“And we call on all refiners, all domestic refiners to come together to not only supply the domestic market but also to let us change the narrative and have legal exports, legal earning of foreign exchange into this economy by providing, in the first instance, the sub-region.”

The minister also said petrol from Nigeria is smuggled to neighbouring countries, noting that the supply should be done legitimately and officially.

Edun said this would provide the country with extra foreign exchange revenue, which is important for the overall well-being of the economy.