Over $25 billion will be saved by Dangote Refinery, and $10 billion will be brought in in exports – Emefiele

The President of the Central Bank of Nigeria disclosed that the commencement of operations at the Dangote refinery, would be a major boon for Nigeria’s FX reserves, as it would save $25 billion in Nigeria’s FX needs, due to an end to energy imports and provide $10 billion in exports.

Godwin Emefiele disclosed this on Monday at the event marking the commissioning of the Dangote refinery in Lagos.

He stated that if Nigeria failed to find savings for it’s energy imports, Nigeria’s import costs would have risen to $30

FX Gains

Emefiele said, the take off comes with economic benefits, generating over 135 thousand permanent jobs and also 12MW of electricity, as the project gives us significant savings and easing fiscal burden, “

• He added “30% of Nigeria’s FX requirements went to fuel imports, it is instructive to note, that according to balance of payments it doubled from 8.4$ billion in 2017 to $23.3 billion at end of 2022,
• “Average annual costs of petroleum imports could breached $30 billion by 2027, if we continue to rely on imports
• “The refinery will serve over $25 billion in foreign exchange savings, and benefit an extra $10 billion through exports of refined products

He also noted that by 2017, costs of the refinery has escalated from $9 billion at a cost of $18.5 billion 50% equity investment by Dangote, I am delighted to announce, the commercial loan was financed by domestic banks,

He added the CBN also partnered to ensure successful completion with over N125 billion for domestic currency requirements, and availability to FX to pay for imports needed,

He noted that the Dangote group has paid down some portion of commercial loans before the commission, as of today, and the total loans outstanding has dropped from over $4 billion to $2.7 billion,