Dangote recounts the forces he encountered.

Dangote recounts the forces he encountered. Aliko Dangote, the founder of the Dangote Group,

disclosed that strong oil cartels attempted to sabotage his refinery project.

The richest man in Africa also said he had repaid $2.4 billion of the $5.5 billion loan for his $19 billion refinery located in Lagos.

This Day Newspaper said that Dangote declared his 650,000-barrel-per-day refinery will serve as Nigeria’s strategic

reserve during his speech at the Afreximbank Annual Meetings on Wednesday in Nassau, The Bahamas.

Our own financial sheet served as the basis for the loan. We borrowed a little more than $5.5 billion, I believe. However,

we also paid a lot of interest as we went along as the project was delayed due to a lack of land and the lengthy sand-filling process. We did nothing for over five years.

We got started in 2018.” That’s how much we borrowed. Of course, we have already paid roughly $2.4 billion in principal and interest.

We’ve performed admirably. There is currently only roughly $2.7 billion outstanding. Therefore, for a project of that size, we’ve done really well,” he noted.

Dangote went on to say that international banks were not very interested in helping Africa prosper. Connected News

While the billionaire said he expected pushback, he also said he underestimated the intensity of the opposition,

saying that the pushback was much more intense than he had anticipated. He claimed that efforts to

block the construction of the refinery were undertaken repeatedly by both domestic and foreign interests, which he compared to a “mafia.”

He added that certain foreign banks were eager to force them into debt default throughout the

COVID era so that the project would ultimately come to an end, that didn’t happen with the aid of Afreximbank.

In order to ensure self-sufficiency and lessen dependency on imports, Dangote also declared his intention to enter the steel business.

He stated that his objective is to employ solely steel manufactured in Nigeria.