Otedola: Dangote’s full production will shore up Naira value
First HoldCo Chairman Femi Otedola has projected a strengthened naira against the dollar on the attainment of full-production of 650, 000 barrels per day capacity by the Dangote Refinery. The
First HoldCo Chairman Femi Otedola has projected a strengthened naira against the dollar on the attainment of full-production of 650, 000 barrels per day capacity by the Dangote Refinery.
The billionaire said the naira could sell below N1000/$ before the year runs out.
According to statements by the Dangote Refinery management, the refinery reached full capacity after the full restoration and optimization of its crude distillation unit (CDU) and motor spirit (MS) production block following a scheduled maintenance.
In a post on his verified ‘X’ handle yesterday, Otedola described the refinery’s full capacity operations as “transformational for Nigeria and Africa,” noting that its ability to supply up to 75 million litres of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) or petrol daily, would significantly alter the country’s energy landscape and reduce pressure on foreign exchange.
The post further reads: “With domestic refining now firmly underway after decades of reliance on imports, pressure on the foreign exchange market should ease significantly. I am optimistic that the naira will strengthen meaningfully and trading below N1,000/$1 before year-end is increasingly within reach.”
The businessman He argued that aside from the current output of the refinery, Dangote Refinery was embarking on a $12 billion expansion project aimed at raising refining daily production capacity to 1.4 million barrels.
The expansion will also include plans to produce 2.4 million tonnes of polypropylene and 400,000 metric tonnes of linear alkyl benzene, a key raw material in detergent manufacturing.
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He congratulated Aliko Dangote, founder of the refinery, on the remarkable “achievement of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery reaching its full 650,000 barrels per day capacity”.
“Nigeria is proud” of Dangote,”, Otedola wrote, describing the industrialist as “my brother.”
The refinery’s milestone comes amid ongoing efforts by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to stabilise the foreign exchange market through measures designed to improve liquidity and narrow the gap between the official and parallel market rates.
The naira traded at N1,354 to the dollar at the official foreign exchange market yesterday and between N1,430 and N1,440 at the parallel market — its strongest performance in over two years.
