The President and Chief Executive of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has urged the Federal Government to end fuel subsidies completely.
Speaking in a 26-minute interview with Bloomberg Television in New York on Monday, the time is right to end subsidies that have gulped trillions of naira from the country’s coffers.
According to him, the removal would assist in determining the country’s actual consumption.
His advice follows the recent commencement of petrol lifting from the Dangote Refinery, and price increment to ₦950 per litre in Lagos state and its environs, and above ₦1000 in the north.
He stated that fuel production from his refinery will help ease pressures on the naira, and also confirmed ownership of two oil blocks in the upstream sector with an expected production date of next month.
He said, “Subsidy is a susceptible issue. Once you are subsidising something, people will bloat the price and the government will end up paying what they are not supposed to be paying. It is the right time to get rid of subsidies.”
“But this refinery will resolve a lot of issues out there, you know, it will show the real consumption of Nigeria, because, you know, nobody can tell you. Some people say 60 million liters of gasoline per day.
“Some say, it’s less. But right now, if you look at it by us producing, everything can be counted. So everything can be accounted for, particularly for most of the trucks or ships that will come to load from us. We are going to put a tracker on them to be sure they are going to take the oil within Nigeria, and that, I think, can help the government save quite a lot of money. I think it is the right time, you know, to remove the subsidy.”
Dangote also spoke on whether or not the federal government retaining fuel subsidy would pan well for his refinery, “Well, you see, we have a choice of either one. We produce, we export, and when we produce, we sell locally. But we are a big private company. And yes, it’s true, we have to make a profit. We build something worth $20bn so definitely we have to make money.
