PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has urged the incoming government of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu to build on the success of the Dangote Refinery.

Speaking at the commissioning of the refinery, located in the Ibeju-Lekki area of Lagos State, Buhari said: “I have confidence that my successor, Bola Tinubu, will sustain the improvement in our economy and business environment and stress on the framework of our government partnership to accelerate the growth of our economic development.

“I am going to be leaving our economy in competent hands and I congratulate the Chairman and the Board of Directors and the management of Dangote Group for their notable contribution to the industrialisation of our economy and that of our continent.”

Buhari was received by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, accompanied by the President/CEO, Dangote Group, Dr. Aliko Dangote, to the ceremony expected to be attended by five African Presidents, including Gnassingbé Eyadéma (Togo); Nana Akufo-Addo (Ghana); Macky Sall (Senegal); Mohamed Bazoum (Niger Republic); Mahamat Déby (Chad) and Paul Kagame (Rwanda).

Owned by  Africa’s richest man, the refinery is Africa’s biggest, “is a game-changer for the Nigerian people,” according to Buhari, and is expected to reduce fuel shortages in Nigeria.

  The refinery, which is not yet operational, has the capacity to produce about 650,000 barrels of petroleum products a day, more than enough to supply Nigeria’s needs, also includes a power station, deep seaport and fertiliser plant.

Nigeria’s government-owned refineries in Warri, Port Harcourt and Kaduna have been completely shut for over three years due to oil theft, pipeline vandalism and structural neglect and mismanagement.

At the commissioning, Dangote stated: “Our first goal is to ramp up production of the various products to ensure that within this year, we are able to fully satisfy the nation’s demand for quality products.”

However, it remained unclear how all these would impact on pricing of petroleum products in an industry characterised by corruption and controversial subsidies, which the outgoing promised to scrap at the twilight of its existence, but chickened out at the very last minute. 

Dangote Refinery, which took almost seven years to complete, is said to be the world’s largest single-train refinery, meaning the plant has one integrated distillery system that can produce a variety of products and petrochemicals, rather than having different units for each type of product.

It is one of the last major projects to be inaugurated by Buhari a week to the end of his chequered eight-year tenure.