The state government is a report from the Specialized Technical Committee on the Evaluation of the Legality of the Alleged Acquisition of Obajana Cement Company Plc by Dangote Cement Company Limited said the claimed transfer of Obajana to Dangote Industries Limited was “invalid, null and void.”

The report claimed that the certificate of occupancy of the company was solely owned by the state government and that “Kogi State Government should take steps to recover all accrued dividends from profits made over the years, including accrued interest on the same.

“Kogi State Government should take steps to cancel the existing seven Certificates of Occupancy in the name of Dangote Cement Company.”

“Agreement between Kogi State Government of Nigeria and Dangote Industries Limited, dated 30th July 2002 and supplemental agreement dated 14th February 2003, as contained in Exhibit 71 of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry Report, purporting the transfer of Obajana Cement Company Plc to Dangote Industries Limited, are all invalid, null and void.

“There is no evidence of consideration paid by Dangote Industries Limited to Kogi State Government from the alleged transfer of Obajana Cement Company Plc and no dividend was paid to the state from the profits realised from the inception of Dangote Cement Company Plc to date.”

On his part, the Speaker of the Kogi State House of Assembly, Matthew Kolawole, said the acquisition of the Obajana Cement Company by Dangote was without the resolution of the House of Assembly, which rendered the process null and void.

“It is clear that you cannot sell a state government property of any form without the resolution of the Kogi State House of Assembly.

“All the transfer process of the share capital to Dangote from Obajana by the previous administration was without any law backing it by the state House of Assembly,” Kolawole stated.

What Dangote is saying

On its part, the management of Dangote Cement Plc has in its reaction to the shutdown of its plant at Obajana by the Kogi State Government, appealed to all its staff and customers to remain calm while the company explores all possible legal steps to address the action by the government which it described as illegal.

A statement issued from the company’s headquarters in Lagos reads,

 “The management of Dangote Cement Plc, wishes to inform members of the public, especially its customers and other stakeholders of the recent invasion of its Obajana Cement Plant, Kogi by armed vigilantes on the orders of the state government.

“The vigilantes, led by some officials of the state government were apparently acting on a resolution of the Kogi state House of Assembly on controversial tax claims.

“Claims that the state governor had also contradicted when he said the shutdown was due to an alleged invalid acquisition of the company by Dangote Industries Ltd.

“In the process of forcefully evicting the workers to enforce the shutdown, the vigilantes shot at 27 of our workers and also destroyed some of the company’s property at the plant.

“While we reiterate that Obajana Cement plant is 100 percent owned by Dangote Cement PLC, we remain resolute in transforming Africa, while creating sustainable value for our people, communities, investors, and customers.’’

What the Obajana seizure means for investors in Africa

Aliko Dangote the businessman and President of the Group is no doubt one of the biggest investors in Africa with investments across multiple African countries including Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, and South Africa. The billionaire has demonstrated a remarkable commitment to investing in Africa, and the Obajana Cement plant is one of them.

The forceful closure of the plant which has provided jobs to the youth, revenue to the Kogi State government, and infrastructure for the people is an unfortunate chapter in Nigeria’s polity.

At a time that the continent of Africa is fast-tracking the ‘AFCFTA’ which is the Free Trade Agreement Area, designed to boost industrialization, trade, and development the actions of the Kogi state government are shocking.

For the benefit of the doubt, Nigeria is a democratic state, and where there are issues of concern around the operations of a multinational in a state.

There are four reasons why the recent action of the Kogi state government on the Obajana Cement plant, speaks to the effect of signaling to investors.

• Ease of Doing Business
  Part of the role of government at the federal, state, or local government level is providing an enabling environment for businesses to thrive.
  The actions of Kogi State undermine this and create a hostile environment for businesses.
• Investment Promotion
  Nigeria is doing well in the area of attracting foreign direct investments, which was below $500m in Q2,2022. This current action could create additional shocks for potential foreign investors, who will be worried at the treatment meted out to a major domestic investor.
• Sanctity of Contracts
  It will raise the fundamental question of how Nigeria regards the sanctity of contracts and engagements.
  If there are issues like the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria raised, then the best way to approach it is going through the courts. The laws of engagement should be respected without which investors will develop cold feet for investing in Nigeria.
• Security of Assets
  Prior to this incident, Kogi State was highly rated for security whether for assets or communities. With reports that people were shot during the forceful closure, efforts must be made by the government to resolve the issues amicably and bring back stability to the state.

The post Why the Nigerian government is seizing a cement plant from Aliko Dangote appeared first on AFRICA EXPLAINED.

In a video widely circulated on social media, staffers at the facility were seen the facility congratulating the billionaire on his latest triumph.

Baba Dangote congratulating staffers as the $2bn Dangote Fertilizer Plant begins production test run. pic.twitter.com/Ep9YBS9J2V

— ᴏᴠɪᴇ ᴀʟɪ ᴏnovwo-ᴏᴍᴀsᴏʀᴏ ™☤🇳🇬 (@OvieNews) March 25, 2021

The plant is a component of the $12 billion Dangote refinery project that covers an area of 2,635 hectares on the Lekki Free Zone overlooking the Atlantic Ocean in Lagos.

The Urea Fertilizer plant was built to tap into Nigeria’s demand for fertilizer, a critical component of achieving food sufficiency for Africa’s most populous country.

With the start of production at the facility, this fertilizer plant is expected to boost the Nigerian economy by over $2.5 billion annually through foreign exchange savings and exports.

A total of over $9 billion is estimated to be saved for Nigeria annually from the Dangote refinery, petrochemical, and fertilizer plants by way of reduction in foreign exchange spending and other import-related costs.

The Fertilizer plant is expected to manufacture 3 million metric tonnes of urea per annum, with a core focus on the reduction of Nigeria’s fertilizer imports, and $400m annual foreign exchange from export to other African countries.

According to Dangote Group, “the coming on stream of the plant will not only boost food sufficiency in Nigeria but also make Africa self-sufficient in food production and a net exporter of food to the world.”

The company also said capacity at the plant will later be expanded to produce multiple grades of fertilizers to meet soil, crop, and climate-specific requirement for the African continent.

The beginning of production at the fertilizer plant could not have come at a better time for Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote.

Last month, Dangote saw his net worth declined by a whopping $1.20 billion in the month of February alone.

Dangote who is Africa’s wealthiest man for the tenth year in a row and whose wealth peaked at $18.4 billion this year, saw his wealth declined by $1.20 billion, to $16.6 billion from $17.8 billion recorded on the 31st of January 2021, data retrieved from Bloomberg Billionaire Index reveals.

The majority of Dangote’s fortune is derived from his 86% stake in the publicly-traded Dangote Cement, and the fall in Dangote’s net worth is partly attributable to the decline in the share price of his flagship company, Dangote Cement Plc (DCP), as well as the share price of his integrated sugar business, Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc (DSR).

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At the time, his company – Dangote Group has an annual turnover of about $4 billion, and upon the completion and running of the refinery, fertilizer, petrochemicals and other businesses, the company’s turnover should be about $30 billion in the next two years.

The Dangote Refinery Complex is an ambitious $12 billion project which has been touted to have the single biggest impact on Nigeria’s economy as it is expected to be a lasting solution to the country’s heavy dependence on the importation of petroleum products for domestic consumption.

The refinery with its 650,000 barrels per day (bpd) capacity is said to be the single largest in the world. When completed, the facility will meet all of Nigeria’s petroleum needs and still have excess for export. Crude oil will be fractionally distilled into 10.4 million tonnes (Mt) of gasoline, 4.6Mt of diesel, and 4Mt of jet fuel a year.

It will also annually produce 0.69Mt of polypropylene, 0.24Mt of propane, 32,000t of Sulphur, and 0.5Mt of carbon black feed.

As early as next month, the urea fertilizer plant of the complex is expected to start production. The $2.5 billion Fertilizer plant is expected to manufacture 3 million metric tonnes of urea per annum, with a core focus on the reduction of Nigeria’s fertilizer imports, and $400m annual foreign exchange from export to other African countries. In total, the fertilizer plant alone is expected to contribute over $1 billion per annum to the Nigerian economy.

Speaking on the importance of agriculture, Dangote said: “We have massive arable land, we have water; we have the right climate; so, the population growth does not really make me nervous. So, I think the federal government is doing very well by focusing more on the agricultural sector. We just have to tilt towards agriculture and manufacturing as against our oil-reliant economy.”

He also praised the government’s drive in getting more revenue from taxes, noting that the restructuring of the nation’s tax system will generate more revenue for the government.

He stated: “Sixty percent of the government revenue is coming from oil but the government is doing quite a lot to diversify the economy by even trying to restructure the tax system because we need to make more money from taxes because as it is now, the taxes generation in Nigeria is a bit low but the government is on the right track with these innovations.”

According to the latest Forbes’ Africa Billionaires List for 2021, Aliko Dangote is the richest man in Africa for the tenth year in a row with a net worth of $12.1 billion.

Dangote holds significant stake in Dangote Cement, Dangote Sugar, Nascon Allied Industries and Dangote Flour Mills among many others.

He incorporated his business, importing and selling cement at the age of 21, and began cement manufacturing his own cement in the 1990s.

The post How Aliko Dangote planned to squeeze $30 billion profit from Nigeria in two years appeared first on AFRICA EXPLAINED.

The plant is part of the $12 billion Dangote refinery project that covers an area of 2,635 hectares on the Lekki Free Zone overlooking the Atlantic Ocean in Lagos.

The Urea Fertilizer plant was built to tap into Nigeria’s demand for fertilizer, a critical component of achieving food sufficiency for Africa’s most populous country.

Devakumar Edwin, executive director of capital projects and portfolio management at Dangote Group said ” the fertilizer plant facility is ready, the finished products from the plant will be in the market this month.”

The opening of the fertilizer plant has been pushed back severally for several reasons such as access to forex, the ailing economy, and more recently the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Fertilizer plant is expected to manufacture 3 million metric tonnes of urea per annum, with a core focus on the reduction of Nigeria’s fertilizer imports, and $400m annual foreign exchange from export to other African countries.

According to Dangote Group, “the coming on stream of the plant will not only boost food sufficiency in Nigeria but also make Africa self-sufficient in food production and a net exporter of food to the world.”

The company also said capacity at the plant will later be expanded to produce multiple grades of fertilizers to meet soil, crop, and climate-specific requirement for the African continent.

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The 63-year-old, who is currently embroiled in a weird sex scandal is maintaining the richest man in Africa, and the richest black man on earth title for the tenth year in a row, according to the report released by Forbes on Friday.

Despite the effects of Covid-19, Dangote saw his net-worth rise by $2 billion compared to last year thanks to a roughly 30% rise in the share price of Dangote Cement, by far his most valuable asset.

The second richest is Nassef Sawiris of Egypt, whose largest asset is a nearly 6% stake in sportswear maker Adidas.

At number three: Nicky Oppenheimer of South Africa, who inherited a stake in diamond firm DeBeers and ran the company until 2012, when he sold his family’s 40% stake in DeBeers to mining giant AngloAmerican for $5.1 billion.

The biggest gainer on the list is Nigerian cement tycoon, Abdulsamad Rabiu, who saw his net worth rise by a staggering 77% and is now worth $5.5 billion from $3.2 billion net-worth in 2020.

All 18 individuals on the list are men. The only two women billionaires from Africa from last year have both fallen off the list. Nigeria’s Folorunsho Alakija saw her net-worth drop below $1 billion due to lower oil prices.

Isabel dos Santos, who since 2013 has been the richest woman in Africa, was knocked from her perch by a series of court decisions freezing her assets in both Angola and Portugal. She has been facing multiple corruption charges since her father left office as Angola’s president in 2017.

The 18 billionaires from Africa hail from seven different countries. South Africa and Egypt each have five billionaires, followed by Nigeria with three and Morocco with two. Altogether they are worth $73.8 billion.

See below for the full list of the richest people in Africa, their net worth, age, and source of wealth:

1. Aliko Dangote – $12.1 B – 63 [cement, sugar]

2. Nassef Sawiris – $8.5 B – 60 [construction, investments]

3. Nicky Oppenheimer – $8 B – 75 [diamonds]

4. Johann Rupert – $7.2 B – 70 – [luxury goods]

5. Mike Adenuga – $6.3 B – 67 [telecom, oil]

6. Abdulsamad Rabiu – $5.5 B – 60 [cement, sugar]

7. Issad Rebrab – $4.8 B – 77 [food]

8. Naguib Sawiris – $3.2 B – 66 [telecom]

9. Patrice Motsepe – $3 B – 58 [mining]

10. Koos Bekker – $2.8 B – 68 [media, investments]

11. Mohamed Mansour – $2.5 B – 73 [diversified]

12. Aziz Akhannouch – $2 B – 60 [petroleum, diversified]

13. Mohammed Dewji – $1.6 B – 45 [diversified]

14. Youssef Mansour – $1.5 B – 75 [diversified]

15. Othman Benjelloun – $1.3 B – 88 [banking, insurance]

16. Michiel Le Roux – $1.2 B – 71 [banking]

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Earlier in November, Nigeria slipped into economic recession and experts believe the main cause is the fact that the country has had to deplete its foreign earnings to import refined petroleum products in order to meet local demands.

Nigeria currently has 4 refineries all of which are comatose;

• The first refinery in Port Harcourt was commissioned in 1965 to process 60,000 barrels of oil per stream day (bpsd), as well as the second plant commissioned in 1989, which has a capacity of 150,000 bpsd.

  Both refineries have a combined capacity of 210,000 barrels per stream day making it the biggest oil refining company in Nigeria. They both had the last Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) in 2000.

• The Warri refinery was established in 1978 with a refining nameplate capacity of 100,000 barrels per stream day plant and was debottlenecked to 125,000 barrels per stream day in 1987. The refinery is located at Ekpan, Warri, Delta State, and it is operated by the Warri Refining & Petrochemicals Company (WRPC) Limited, an NNPC subsidiary.

• 

• The Kaduna refinery has a name plate refining capacity of 110,000 barrels per day and is located in Kaduna, KadunaState. The plant is run by the Kaduna Refining and Petrochemicals (KRPC) Limited, a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and has a complex conversion configuration. The KRPC possesses a fuels plant commissioned in 1983 and the 30,000 MT per year Petrochemical Plant in 1988. The refining plant has two (2) distillation units that utilize Escravos and Ughelli crude oils’ for fuels production and imported heavy crude oil for lube base oil, asphalt and waxes.

Dangote oil refinery location and site details

The refinery is located in Lagos Nigeria, and is being developed on a 2,635 hecters of land site on the Lekki Free Zone near the Lekki Lagoon, along the coast of Atlantic Ocean.

The geographical location of the refinery is ideal for easy transshipment of refined petroleum products to the international markets. Most African countries who also rely on Europe and America for refined petroleum products will be ready markets.

Dangote has already built a jetty near the project site to receive heavy equipment for the refinery construction. 1,100 kilometers of pipeline has been constructed to bring crude oil from the Niger-Delta where a bulk of Nigera’s crude oil is located.

Processing capacity

Dangote refinery is a 650,000 barrels per day (bpd) integrated refinery and petrochemical complex. When completed, the facility will meet all of Nigeria’s petroleum needs and still have excess for export. Crude oil will be fractionally distilled into 10.4 million tonnes (Mt) of gasoline, 4.6Mt of diesel, and 4Mt of jet fuel a year.

It will also annually produce 0.69Mt of polypropylene, 0.24Mt of propane, 32,000t of Sulphur, and 0.5Mt of carbon black feed.

Infrastructure facilities

The infrastructure facilities for the refinery complex include a pipeline system, access roads, tank storage facilities, and crude and product-handling facilities.

A marine terminal, including a breakwater, jetty and harbour, has also been developed as part of the project.

Other facilities developed to support the project include an administrative building, guardhouses, fire station, and pump stations.

The refinery complex will also house a fertilizer plant, which will utilize the refinery by-products as raw materials.

read also: Why is Eko Atlantic City taking forever to complete?

Contractors involved

Engineers India is the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contractor for the project.

Honeywell UOP was contracted for the supply of catalyst regeneration and dryer regeneration control systems, column trays, heat exchanger tubes, a modular CCR unit, and catalyst coolers among other equipment.

C&I Leasing was contracted for providing transportation and installation services for mooring systems and subsea pipelines of the refinery.

Hang Xiao Steel Structure Company received a $112m contract to provide steel structure for the refinery.

Jan De Nul Group was engaged for carrying out land reclamation works.

MAN Diesel & Turbo was contracted for supplying two compressor trains, while Air Liquide Engineering & Construction was contracted for supplying the SMR units.

Fabtech (18 columns), Schneider Electric (process automation systems), SOFEC (Catenary Anchor Leg Mooring buoys), and WABAG (raw water treatment plant) are the other suppliers involved in the Dangote refinery project.

Financing for Dangote refinery

A group of local and international banks led by Standard Chartered Bank has agreed to provide a $3.3bn syndicated loan facility for the project.

The United States Trade and Development Agency is providing an N251.3bn ($0.997b) training grant for the human resource development for the refinery operation. Nigeria’s central bank would provide guarantees for about 575 billion naira in local currency for 10 years, with African Development Bank providing a $300 million loan. Trade banks from China, India and some European countries are also in the mix, Dangote said.

Jobs at Dangote oil refinery

When fully operational, the refinery will employ about 10,000 people directly and another 300,000 will benefit indirectly. This will include jobs such as taxi drivers, bartenders, restaurant owners and alot more. An entirely new economy is being created in Ibeju Lekki near the project site.

Dangote refinery completion date

The completion of the project was scheduled for 2020 but progress was interrupted by the global outbreak of covid-19. Work is still on-going at the Dangote Refinery, and is expected to be commissioned in the first quarter of next year.

Power generation

The Dangote refinery complex will have the capability to generate 400MW of electricity from its own power plant, that is more than enough to power the complex. by comparism, this is able to meet the total power requirement of Ibadan DisCo.

The Dangote refinery will be a game changer for not only Nigeria, but the rest of Africa as well. The country will no longer need to import petrol despite having the second largest crude oil reserves on the continent. the refinery will also save Nigeria about $10 billion a year in badly needed forex.

The post Dangote Refinery: 7 Important Facts and Figures you Should Know appeared first on AFRICA EXPLAINED.

The facility is projected to create 70,000 jobs and save Nigeria 10 billion dollars in foreign exchange.

Currently, Nigeria is Africa’s top oil producer and oil is the government’s biggest source of revenue, about 70 percent of government revenue comes from oil.

Nigeria sits on an estimated 37 billion barrels of crude oil, but the country still relies on importing petroleum products due to a lack of functional refineries.

This is a quick look at how a single project can perhaps change an entire country’s fortunes and set it on a new path.

In 2013, Africa’s wealthiest man Aliko Dangote signed a multi-million dollar deal with banks to finance the building of his Dangote refinery and petrochemical complex.

Read more: Why Nigerians hate Big Brother Naija

Estimated to cost 12 billion dollars, the refinery will produce Euro-V quality gasoline and disel as well as jet fuel and polypropylene, the construction phase is expected to create 7,000 direct and another 25,000 indirect jobs.

It will be processing 650,000 barrels of crude oil a day which will be fractionally distilled into 50 million liters of petrol and 17 million liters of diesel as well as aviation fuel and plastic products. With greater capacity than the total output of Nigeria’s existing refining infrastructure, the Dangote refinery will be able to meet the country’s entire domestic fuel demands as well as export refined products.

The refinery site covers an area of 2,635 hectares on the Lekki Free Zone overlooking the Atlantic ocean. This location will enable the transshipment of products to the international market.

The processing facilities at the refinery will include a crude distillation unit and associated facility and a mild hydrocracking unit.

Other infrastructure features at the facility will include a pipeline system, access roads, tank storage facilities, and crude and product handling facilities.

In addition, an administrative building, guardhouses, and fire stations are parts of this facility.

The refinery complex also includes a fertilizer plant that will utilize the byproducts from the refinery as raw material.

The refinery facility will have an annual refining capacity of 10.4 million tones of petrol, in addition to 4.5 million tones of diesel and 4 million tones of jet fuel.

There is one more feature of this facility that most Nigerians and indeed people of West Africa will be most excited about, and that is it comes with the capacity to generate 12,000 megawatts of electricity. Nigeria currently generates about 6,000 megawatts of electricity and it sells a significant portion of that to other West African countries.

Dangote’s 12,000 megawatts should be enough to at least kick start Nigeria’s industrial revolution.

But not everyone is happy with this project, some have criticized its Lagos location. The refinery is being built hundreds of miles from the impoverished Niger-Delta where the bulk of Nigeria’s oil is extracted. Two undersea pipelines are under construction in the Delta and will carry crude oil about 340 miles to the refinery in Lagos.

The Dangote oil and gas refinery remains on track to be operational in early 2021 despite the disruptions caused by the Coronavirus pandemic. Yet critics worry that this will allow Mr. Dangote to essentially take over Nigeria’s oil and gas industry turning it into a monopoly.

Most Nigerians will choose a well-run monopoly over the current situation, where getting fuel remains an uncertainty.

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