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I’m ready to lose money to give Nigerians cheap fuel – Dangote
Aliko Dangote, President of Dangote Industries Limited (DIL), was on Thursday, quoted to have vowed to ensure Nigerians got cheap Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), otherwise known as petrol, even if it means losing money at the end of the day.
The conglomerate is the owner of Dangote Refineries Limited (DRL), Nigeria and Africa’s first private facility and the first to be built in the continent in the last 35 years, which has now begun the refining of PMS a few weeks ago, months after it began the production of diesel.
Devakumar Edwin, Vice President, Oil and Gas of DIL, who disclosed this on Thursday, on the day he gave details on the negotiation between the DRL and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), on the distribution and sales of the PMS, that the company had accepted to sell the refined petrol from its 650,000 barrels per day refinery in naira, Nigeria’s local currency, as part of the particulars of the agreement.
Edwin, told participants at an X Space event hosted by ‘Nairametrics’ detailing the progress made by the refinery in the production of PMS, that the NNPC had informed the management of Dangote Group of its intention to station a team of six to 10 people permanently at the $20 billion refinery to oversee the production and buying back the products in Naira since the national oil company would be supplying the crude.
Informing that the request aligned with the NNPC’s aim to closely monitor the entire process, ensuring consistent crude supply and efficient processing while securing a steady flow of PMS for the country, he said: “NNPC has informed us that they intend to station a team of six to 10 people permanently at our refinery.
“They’ve asked us to provide office space for them since they will be supplying the crude, overseeing the production, and buying back the products in Naira. This request aligns with the NNPC’s aim to closely monitor the entire process, ensuring that crude is supplied and processed efficiently while securing a steady flow of PMS for the country.”
Providing further information on the production and commercial arrangements at the refinery, Edwin noted that the discussions with the NNPC revolved around a new model for crude supply where the refinery will buy crude from the government in Naira and sell PMS in the same currency, rather than in dollars.
Explaining part of the details of the negotiations, with critical aspects like crude pricing and the Naira exchange rate yet to be finalized, he said: “We are still in talks with the government about receiving crude in Naira. The discussions are ongoing, and nothing has been finalised yet. Some unresolved issues include the pricing of crude, the pricing mechanism, and determining the appropriate exchange rate for the Naira.
“Dangote intervened and said, we are going to accept this because the country desperately needs foreign exchange, and the value of the Naira is deteriorating every day. I understand that I am going to take a loss – because, by the time we sell the product and convert it to dollars, the exchange rate may have worsened.”
Edwin also expressed frustration over the seeming boycott of Dangote Refinery’s products by local marketers, revealing that despite the refinery’s efforts to supply affordable petroleum products, many traders in Nigeria have refused to purchase from the facility, preferring to continue importing refined products from abroad.
He said: “The whole purpose of doing this refinery in Nigeria was to utilise our local crude instead of exporting raw materials and importing finished products. We should be able to refine and use the finished products within Nigeria and produce more to export the surplus.”
But he regretted that despite the refinery’s large production capacity, local marketers were only purchasing about three per cent of the output, while the remaining 97 percent of the refinery’s production, including diesel and jet fuel, was being exported due to a boycott by local traders who refuse to buy at the refinery’s lower prices.
Hear him: “I’m selling two to three per cent to small traders who are willing to buy, while the rest 95 to 97 per cent I’m forced to export,” suggesting that some marketers prefer to import for reasons he did not state. Oil marketers wrote to President Bola Tinubu, complaining about the refinery’s pricing strategies, especially for reducing the rate Nigerians buy diesel. They wrote to His Excellency, the President, claiming that we are disturbing the market by dropping our prices.”
Explaining that the refinery had the capacity to produce up to 54 million litres of refined petroleum products per day, depending on crude oil supply, he lamented that local crude supplies had been inconsistent, forcing the refinery to rely on imported crude from countries like the US and Brazil.
He stressed that the situation was further worsened by International Oil Companies (IOCs), which prefered to prioritise foreign markets and selling crude oil at prices above the market rate, adding that just 44 per cent production of the refinery was enough to meet Nigeria’s petroleum needs, while the rest could be exported.
He added: “We have invested a lot on training and capacity of the production with the refinery capacity. As I said, 44 per cent of the refinery production can meet 100 per cent of the requirement of the country.
“So, the balance 56 per cent of the refinery’s production will have to be exported, whether it is jet fuel, whether it is diesel, whether it is PMS, we have to export 56 per cent of our production because 44 per cent will meet all the requirements of the country.
“So, we are not only going to save a lot of foreign exchange by import substitution, but we are also going to generate a lot of foreign exchange by exports. Now, you talked about the transparent mechanism of the pricing. So, as I said, NNPC is giving us the crude and they are going to have people sit here to monitor all the production processes, the stocks which are coming out, everything.
“And they are going to agree on the price at which they will sell the crude in Naira and then they are going to collect all the products. So, they are going to work through to see how the prices will be.
“So, it is not something where we are trying to exploit somebody. We can load 2,900 tankers every day. But we are not even loading up to 29 tankers per day. So, it is very strange that after putting the refinery to supply the products locally, every diesel I am producing, I have to export. Every jet fuel I am producing, I have to export because they do not want to buy from us. So, we are in a very strange situation.
“With investment of about $3 billion in fertiliser and $20 billion in the refinery, unless the business makes some money, it will not be able to invest in upstream. I’ve been an employee of Aliko Dangote for as far back as 33 years. I can say that all the money he makes goes into further investment to ensure the employment of Nigeria’s teeming population.
“He has not built any other palace or any other house. He is living in the same 35-year-old house. The only thing he can sit is an aluminium sheet shed. Nothing else he has built. And 33 years ago when I joined, he had a house in Atlanta. He was a neighbour to Ted Turner, the then owner of CNN.
“He sold it. He had a house in London. He has sold it. When we were doing the sugar refinery in 1997 to 1999, he sold all those houses and put the money in the sugar refinery. All the money we made from our textiles and salt he put it in sugar refining, flour milling, pasta and noodles. Then all the money which we made from that, he started investing in cement.
“Now the money which he has made in cement, he has been investing in oil and gas, fertiliser and refinery. All our businesses are listed companies. So how much profit we are making as a company, how much dividend he is getting, are all published figures. So, you can see all the money where it is going.”
Justice Muhammad Nuraddeen Bello of High Court sitting in Sokoto State has sentenced three men, including a foreign national, to death by hanging, after convicting them on charges bordering on terrorism and arms proliferation.
The convicts, Yusuf Muhammad (alias Sallau), a Nigerien; Jabbi Alhaji Yalle; and Kabiru Muhammad, were apprehended on 13th June, 2025, by the Department of State Services (DSS) Counter Terrorism Unit in connection with cross-border criminal activities bordering on arms trafficking and terrorism.
Bello, who found all three defendants guilty as charged and sentenced them to death by hanging, while also ordering the forfeiture of all monetary exhibits recovered from the convicts to the Federal Government, said: “The conviction is the latest in a series of successful prosecutions by the DSS in its sustained operations against terrorism and organised cross-border criminal networks across Nigeria.”
The sentencing is coming about two weeks after the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja sentenced each of the five suspects arrested on May 31, 2026, by the DSS for their involvement in the November 21, 2025, attack on St Mary’s Catholic School, Papiri, Niger State, to 25 years’ imprisonment.
Justice Binta Nyako, had handed down the judgment after the men, including two Nigeriens, pleaded guilty to all four terrorism-related charges, bordering on support for the commission of an act of terrorism, breaching both Section 16 of the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022, and the Firearms Act, were pressed against them.
According to Count One, the men were accused of jointly conspiring to assist a terrorist by agreeing and intentionally playing various roles towards conveying 15 AK 103 rifles as well as about 1,434 rounds of 7.62mm live ammunition from the Diffa region, Republic of Niger, to one Malam Ahmad, a member of the Boko Haram terrorist group based in Borgu, Niger State, and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 26(1) of the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022.
Primate Elijah Ayodele, is on the verge of coughing out a whopping N10billion, if he fails to offer unrestrained apology to Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, former Governor of Kano State within the next 24 hours, and retract his claim that the former Minister of Defence is bidding his time to betray Peter Obi, to whom he is to contest the 2027 presidential election as a running mate.
Without doing so, the controversial cleric, should be ready for a major court battle with the vice-presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), the platform on which the pair is to contest the election.
In a letter indicating a legal action against Ayodele of the INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church over defamatory remarks, Kwankwaso, through Magaji Mato Ibrahim, SAN & Co., his lawyers demanded an immediate retraction and apology from the cleric over the allegations.
Details of the letter, dated June 11, and unveiled through the X platform of the legal team, was based on a viral video recorded during a live-streamed church service, where the preacher made allegations targeting Kwankwaso’s integrity as Peter Obi’s running mate under the NDC.
Quoting the cleric as stating: “KWANKWASO IS A FAKE TO OBI, KWANKWASO WILL BETRAY YOU. KWANKWASO HAS BEEN PAID TO BE VICE PRESIDENT TO OBI AMONG OTHER LIBELOUS COMMENTS WHILE PRETENDING TO BE A PREACHER,” the former governor said the comments were unprovoked, grossly unfounded, and carefully designed to create a rift within the ranks of the political party and its supporters.
Handing Ayodele a 24-hour ultimatum to publish a full and unequivocal retraction across all social media platforms and news outlets with the same prominence as the original video, they also demanded a written undertaking that he would cease and desist from making any further malicious statements against their client, warning that failure to comply, would lead to full legal actions.
The letter stated: “We shall claim substantial damages to the tune of Ten Billion Naira and cost of the action on a full indemnity basis amongst other reliefs.”
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Tuesday demanded the immediate end to the exportation of minerals from countries in Africa in their raw forms, which he said had led to massive exploitation of the continent.
The President, told member countries of the African Minerals Strategy Group (AMSG), a forum of Ministers in charge of Mining and Solid Minerals on the continent to speak with one voice to promote, collective interests, ensure value addition, and prevent the continent from becoming merely a source of raw materials for the rest of the world.
As the Grand Patron of the group, chaired by Dele Alake, Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals Development, gave the charge while receiving a delegation of AMSG in the State House, Tinubu told the delegation that the group had a critical role to play in strengthening Africa’s bargaining power in the global mineral market and ensuring that the continent derives maximum value from its natural resources.
His words: “ What we should do is avoid bureaucracy and deceit; we must put an end to exploitation. The rest of the world won’t mind if your country is a cesspit of dams and rubbish and excavates your raw materials without giving value.
“It is our responsibility to collaborate and cooperate to ensure that these metals and minerals bring value to us, bring technology to us, and we can do it. It is how much each country will put into the research, development and refinery. I don’t see reasons we cannot demand centralisation of that conversation somewhere on the continent. So why not utilise that in our research and development and knowledge-based economy to enhance the quality of life and bring prosperity to our people.”
Emphasising that Africa possessed enormous mineral wealth that should be strategically harnessed to drive industrialisation, create jobs and accelerate economic transformation across the continent, the President, said the era of exporting raw minerals without local processing and beneficiation must give way to a new model that encourages investment in local industries, technology transfer and the development of value chains that retain wealth within Africa.
Alake, who had earlier expressed gratitude to the President for his exemplary leadership under the Renewed Hope Agenda, said the gesture had shown support for Nigeria’s mineral sector, especially in the local value-addition and economic diversification drive, where artisanal miners are empowered.
He told the President: “You encouraged us to look at the focal point of the establishment of this group, which is to ensure that the African natural resources, especially with regards to minerals, critical matters, are localised, the beneficiation coming directly to Africans generally.
“You charged us that we should set our sails very high and ensure that local value addition is a pivot around which all the objectives of this organisation should revolve.
“So, sir, we have gone implemented your charge and we are quitted that today local value addition is reverberating all over Africa.”
He added that some member countries have gone ahead to ban the export of raw minerals.
He explained members of the body were in Abuja for the Fifth edition of the African Natural Resources and Energy Investment Summit (AFNIS 2026), to push for a new continental approach to resource management and industrial development.
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