President Muhammadu Buhari will commission the multi-billion dollar Dangote oil refinery in two weeks, an aide to the president said on Sunday, setting up the plant for its first production since construction started in 2016.
Nigeria, Africa’s biggest oil producer, sees the 650,000 barrels-per-day refinery – being built by billionaire industrialist Aliko Dangote’s Dangote Group – as a solution to ending the country’s reliance on imports for nearly all of its refined petroleum products.
Spokesperson Bashir Ahmad said Buhari will commission the refinery, near Lagos, on May 22, a week before he is due to leave office after serving the maximum two terms allowed by the constitution.
A spokesperson for Dangote confirmed the timing of the commissioning but did not give details.
The Dangote refinery’s cost grew to $19 billion from initial estimates of between $12 billion and $14 billion, after years of delays.
