On February 29, gang violence erupted in the downtown area of Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince while then prime minister Ariel Henry was visiting Kenya to seek an agreement for the deployment of foreign forces in Haiti to fight organized crime. The gangs said their goal was to prevent the prime minister from returning to the country.
Kenyan police will deploy to Haiti within weeks to lead a UN-backed multinational mission aimed at tackling gang violence, a senior government official in the East African country said on Sunday.
“Right now, Nigeria has no cause to import anything apart from gasoline, and by sometime in June, within the next four or five weeks, Nigeria shouldn’t import anything like gasoline; not one drop of a liter,” he said at the Africa CEO Forum Annual Summit in Kigali on Friday.
Dangote also asserted that his refinery has the capacity to fulfill the petrol and diesel demands of West Africa, as well as the aviation fuel demand of the whole continent.
“We have enough gasoline to give to at least the entire West Africa; we have enough diesel to give to West Africa and Central Africa. We have enough aviation fuel to give to the entire continent and also export some to Brazil and Mexico,” the businessman said.
Moreover, the continent won’t have to import fertilizers in three to four years, Dangote said.
“As I said, give us three or a maximum of four years, and Africa will not, and I repeat, not import any more fertilizer from anywhere. We will make Africa self-sufficient in both potash, phosphate.[…] Our urea — we are at three million tonnes and in the next 20 months, we will be at six million tonnes of urea, which is, I think, the entire capacity of Egypt. We are getting there,” he assured.
It became possible to make such forecasts thanks to the proper and large funding on the continent, among other things.
“In the last seven years, we have invested more than $25 billion in terms of making Africa self-sufficient in fertilizer, in petrochemicals, in refined products, and [we] also continue with the expansion of our cement business,” Dangote said.
The owner of the largest oil refinery in Africa also pointed out the problem of oil refining on the continent: there are only two countries in Africa — Algeria and Libya — that do not import petroleum products. The rest of the countries are importers. He called this state of affairs a “tragedy” and advocated for change.
“So, we need to change by making sure that we don’t just go and produce raw materials; we should [also] produce finished products and create jobs,” Dangote pointed out.
The Dangote refinery was built at a cost of $20 billion and can process up to 650,000 barrels per day. It is expected to become the largest facility in both Africa and Europe when it reaches full capacity.
It was commissioned in February. The refinery is now producing jet fuel and diesel, and by next month, gasoline will be added to the list, according to Dangote.
