Why Nigerians Are Praying For The Success Of A New Oil Refinery

A prayer was held a few months ago in Kano, a very religious city in northern Nigeria.

It was organised to pray for the success of a huge new Nigerian oil refinery that next month is due to start producing petrol for the first time.

Praying for such an industrial facility might seem incongruous, but many Nigerians are hopeful that the Dangote Petroleum Refinery will lead to both a big increase in the availability of petrol, and a subsequent drop in prices.

The $19bn (pound;15bn) refinery, based along the coast from Nigeria’s commercial hub Lagos, in the south of the country, is the size of almost 4,000 football pitches.

Its construction began back in 2016, and it started production of diesel and an aviation fuel in January of this year. Petrol is now set to follow.

The hope is that the facility will end Nigeria’s dependence on imports of these fuels.

While Nigeria is Africa’s largest producer of crude oil, and the world’s 15th biggest, none of its existing government-owned refineries are operational.

The privately-owned Dangote refinery has been built by Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote.

Born in Kano, the 67-year-old has a net worth of $12.6bn (pound;9.7bn), according to Forbes magazine.

Via his organization, Dangote Group, he made his fortune in cement and sugar before taking on what many say is his biggest test yet when he launched the refinery.

The recent prayer session in Kano was organised by shop owner Lado Danladi, and held at a nearby mosque. He was joined by some of his neighbouring shopkeepers.

“I run a small phone charging shop, and every day I buy $5 petrol for my small generator as there’s no stable electricity,” says Mr Danladi. “But since I heard about the Dangote Refinery I have been praying for its success.

“I can't estimate the hours I have lost trying to get fuel in the past during shortages, so hopefully the refinery will end the suffering, and help small businesses like mine get cheap and easy fuel.”

Mr Danladi’s fellow shop owners, a meat seller, and a drinks vendor all have similar complaints of buying “expensive” fuel to power generators.
For decades Nigerians enjoyed subsidised petrol prices. But last year incoming President Bola Tinubu stopped the subsidies, saying that they were no longer affordable. This led to prices surging by as much as four-fold.

Then this spring and early summer, shortages of petrol led to queues outside petrol stations, and the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum organization warned against people panic buying.

The situation is not helped by Nigeria's corruption problem. According to the closely-watched global corruption index, from non-governmental organisation Transparency International, Nigeria ranks 145th out of 180 countries.

The higher the placing, the more corrupt a country is deemed to be.BBC