VANGUARD
The head of the Dangote Group, and owner of the $19 billion Dangote Refinery, Aliko Dangote, has said that President Bola Tinubu’s Naira-for-crude policy will reduce the demand for foreign exchange (forex) by 40 percent.
He said this today, Tuesday, at a press conference where he announced the commencement of the production of petrol at the Lagos-based 650,000 barrels per day facility, where he declared “it’s a celebration day” for Nigerians.
Recall that in April, the Federal Government said indigenous refineries could buy crude oil in Naira or dollars.
Also, the government revealed, the total crude oil and condensate reserves in Nigeria increased to 37.5 billion barrels as of January 1, with a life index of 68.01 years.
Forex slash
Speaking on the impact of forex demand, Dangote said: “I will like to salute the people of Nigeria and the government of President Bola Tinubu for creating the environment for us to thrive and also achieve this.
“I want to thank President Bola Tinubu for creating this idea of Naira-for-crude and Naira for the product.
“Doing that will give a lot of stability to the Naira and remove 40 percent of the demand for dollars. That’s not just it. There is (been) a lot of round-tripping.”
Also, he said, “Now that we have this refinery working, it will show the true consumption of Nigeria. We can track each loaded truck and try as much as possible to track the loaded ships.
“We can tell you where they are and for some of the products we have, we can tell you the (national) consumption.”
Furthermore, he assured of the quality of petrol from the Dangote Refinery.
