Africa's richest man and owner of the $20 billion Dangote Refinery, Aliko Dangote, has stated that individuals who benefit from fuel importation are deterring African governments from constructing refineries in the continent.
Dangote made this statement during a conversation with CNN's reporter, Eleni Giokos, at his refinery in Lagos, Nigeria.
According to him, no new refineries have been constructed in Africa in the last 35 years, despite the continent being one of the leading regions for oil production.
Dangote also mentioned that other reasons for this underdevelopment include the lack of loan facilities for investors, attributed to weak financial institutions in Africa, among others.
"There are other countries in Africa who have been trying to build refineries but have been unable to. There has not been a new refinery in Africa in the last 35 years.
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"There are so many issues regarding this such as money, political will, and also people who are benefitting from this whole system of importing petroleum products into Africa are actually discouraging their governments from building a refinery.
"Also, they won't get loans anyway because they don't have very strong banks. The international banks will not support anything like this," Dangote said.
Africans need to develop Africa
Speaking further in the interview, the business mogul explained why African entrepreneurs and leaders need to develop work together to develop the continent.
Dangote said that it is futile for the continent to continue to wait for foreign investors to build the region.
According to him, waiting for foreign investors to develop the continent is something that might never happen.
"We Africans have to make sure that we focus and realize that we are the only ones that can deliver. We Africans are the only people that can develop Africa. If we are waiting for foreign investors to come and develop Africa, it will never happen," Dangote added.
What you should know
While Africa possesses one of the largest oil and gas reserves in the world, it still struggles to meet its energy needs.
By average, most of the energy consumed in this region is imported from Europe and America, making the continent heavily import-dependent.
According to a report, about 75% of oil produced in Africa is exported to other continents for energy consumption.
The report also indicated that 1.49 billion population of Africa lacks access to clean energy for cooking and other domestic uses, and about 600 million of the population do not have access to electricity.
While Nigeria is a leading oil producer, for instance, it still imports almost all its petroleum products from elsewhere, a bridge Dangote refinery is trying to close.
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