CBN Boosts Dangote Refinery, Worries Over Deadline

By Fola James

Godwin Emefiele, Central Bank Governor has disclosed that the government bank threw its weight behind Dangote Refinery due to the thousands of jobs it will create when finally completed.

His comments came on the crest of apprehension in the energy sector that the petrochemical refinery, located in Lagos could miss the 2013 completion deadline.

Works at the refinery, analyst say, have slowed due to instability in the naira, apart from the economic situation in the country which has cut the wealth of Africa’s richest man by half in the last five years.

According to the CBN governor, the Refinery situated in Lagos is capable of providing over 70,000 direct jobs apart from other hundreds indirect ones.

Emefiele, spoke after his tour of the Refinery over weekend, where he stated that the Dangote Refinery and Petrochemical Plant currently employs over 30,000 workers with the potential to is increase the number of employees to 70,000 when it becomes operational in few years.

He explained that the Refinery is one of the projects the federal government is banking on to reduce unemployment in the country.

“The various policies of the Fed­eral Government will ultimately re­duce unemployment in the country,” he said.

He added that the whole of Africa will be supplied cheap petroleum products by 2023 when the refinery is expected to roll out its first production, adding that the moguls’ refinery will give the nation economic and political mileage in the continent.

“Nigeria is so central and this re­finery will serve almost the whole of Africa which will lead to cheap cost of freight.

“This project is so strategically positioned that it will even make the final price of petroleum within Nigeria and even outside Nigeria to be lower than those imported outside the African continent.

“We need to encourage other Nigerians and we will keep saying this. Nigerians must stand tall and be ready to come out and support their country,” the CBN governor said.