Chiarman of Dangote Industries Limited, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has urged the government to create the commercial, regulatory and infrastructure conditions required to make domestic refining sustainably competitive.

In his remarks at the Nigeria Oil Refining Summit in Lagos, Dangote cautioned that after building sizeable local refining capacity the real challenge remains to create a competitive refining industry.

In calling for full development of domestic refining ecosystem, Dangote called for evolution of a wider value chain covering crude production, transportation, storage, refining, distribution, retail and exports.

Weakness in any part of that chain, he warned, would undermine the competitiveness of the entire industry.

He emphasized the need to guarantee reliable and competitive access to crude, adding that no refinery could remain competitive without dependable feedstock. He urged stakeholders to consolidate the progress already recorded under the Domestic Crude Supply Obligation framework, citing the NUPRC’s report that about 53.7 million barrels were supplied to domestic refineries in the second quarter of 2026, representing 97.4 per cent of the relevant DCSO performance measure.

He called for a system in which any refinery operating in the country could reliably obtain appropriate Nigerian crude without unnecessary uncertainty, stressing that the system should guarantee predictability, transparency and commercially workable arrangements between crude producers and refiners without subsidising refiners.

He challenged stakeholders to establish a genuinely competitive downstream market, arguing that domestic refining should compete on efficiency, product quality, reliability and price rather than protection.

Imported and locally refined products, he said, should operate under equivalent and transparent regulatory, quality, tax and commercial conditions.

He warned against replacing an import monopoly with a domestic monopoly, saying Nigeria’s objective should instead be to build a competitive refining industry populated by multiple efficient operators.

“We do not seek protection from competition, but competition must take place on a level playing field,” he said.

Policy and regulatory stability, according to the business leader, would be equally decisive in attracting the capital required to build and sustain refining capacity. Given the billions of dollars involved in refining investments and their decades-long operating horizons, investors need confidence that rules governing pricing, imports, crude supply, taxation, foreign exchange, product standards and market access will not change unpredictably.

Dangote said government was not expected to guarantee the profitability of private investors, but should guarantee clarity, consistency and fairness in the rules. Policy certainty, he argued, would reduce investment risk and the cost of capital, ultimately improving the competitiveness of Nigerian refined products.

He further stressed that refining competitiveness could not be separated from the state of Nigeria’s wider infrastructure. Ports, pipelines, storage terminals, roads and product-distribution systems, he said, must develop alongside refinery capacity. The continued movement of millions of litres of petroleum products predominantly by road was costly and inefficient, while placing additional pressure on national infrastructure.

Nigeria therefore needs a modern network of pipelines, coastal distribution facilities, storage depots and efficient evacuation infrastructure, he said, arguing that the next phase of refining investment must extend to the wider downstream logistics ecosystem.

Dangote also urged Nigeria to look beyond domestic fuel requirements and develop refining into an export industry. With its strategic location, he said, Nigeria has the opportunity to become a major refining and petrochemical hub serving West Africa, Central Africa and international markets.

Processing crude domestically rather than exporting it unprocessed would create additional value through jobs, taxes, foreign-exchange earnings, industrial capabilities and opportunities for supporting businesses, he said. The potential, he added, extends beyond petrol, diesel and aviation fuel to petrochemicals, plastics, pharmaceuticals, fertilisers and other downstream manufacturing industries.

For Dangote, this makes refining an important component of Nigeria’s industrialisation strategy rather than merely a fuel-supply programme. He also urged policymakers to view energy security as an economic-security issue, particularly in light of disruptions in global energy markets.

Domestic refining, he said, would give Nigeria greater resilience against external shocks, but energy security should not mean isolation from global markets. Instead, it should involve sufficient domestic capacity, diversified supply sources, adequate strategic stocks and efficient market mechanisms capable of cushioning the country against international disruptions.

Reflecting on the experience of building the Dangote Petroleum Refinery, he said the project had demonstrated both the possibilities and challenges of undertaking large-scale industrial investment in Africa. The investment, he explained, was driven by the conviction that Nigeria and Africa must move from primarily exporting raw materials to producing value-added products.

But one refinery, he emphasised, could not create an industry. Nigeria needs multiple successful refineries, ranging from large-scale and medium-sized plants to modular and specialised facilities, supported by upstream producers, refinery owners, marketers, regulators, financiers and government operating within a coherent commercial framework.

The private sector, Dangote said, was prepared to invest, but capital would flow towards environments where it could operate efficiently, contracts were respected, regulation was predictable and investors had confidence that successful investments would be rewarded rather than penalised.

He consequently called for a clear national objective: Nigeria must produce more crude, ensure reliable access to that crude for domestic refineries, allow refiners to compete efficiently, provide consumers with reliable supply and competition, and export surplus products to African and global markets.

If those fundamentals are secured, Dangote said, refining could become far more than an energy-security project. It could become a major pillar of Nigeria’s industrialisation, generate foreign-exchange earnings, support petrochemicals and manufacturing, create thousands of direct and indirect jobs and drive long-term economic growth.

Nigeria, he noted, had already demonstrated that world-scale refining investment was possible. The next challenge was to build an ecosystem that would make refining in the country sustainably competitive. That, he said, required “partnership—not protection, competition—not monopoly, regulation—not uncertainty, and a long-term industrial vision—not short-term interventions.”

Dangote said Nigeria was gradually breaking from decades of dependence on imported petroleum products despite being a major crude oil producer, with rising domestic refining capacity creating an opportunity to permanently change the country’s petroleum trade narrative.

He cited recent NUPRC figures showing that crude oil and condensate production reached about 1.74 million barrels per day in June 2026, its highest level in several years, while crude receipts by domestic refineries rose to about 683,000 barrels per day in August. He said the increasing contribution of domestic refineries to national petroleum-product supply was encouraging and deserved to be sustained.

With an enabling and predictable environment from government and continued investment, innovation and competition from the private sector, Dangote said Nigeria could become not only self-sufficient in refined petroleum products but also Africa’s leading refining and petrochemical hub.