Afreximbank pledges forex support to Dangote Group

The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) said that it would assist the Dangote Group to access foreign exchange and funding of its refinery projects.

The President, Afreximbank, Dr Okey Oramah, gave the assurance during a tour with his board members to the refinery, which is projected to refine 650,000 barrels of crude oil per day, located within the Lekki Free Trade Zone in Lagos.

He said that Dangote is making tremendous impacts across the continent, including Tanzania, Sierelone, Gambia, Zambia, Niger and other parts of Africa in changing lives.

According to him, “we are supporting them in what they are doing in those countries, so we are equally supporting them in this ongoing projects, so, it is important of the Board of Directors of Afreximbank to pay a courtesy visit to the site.

“To come and see firsthand on the project that is ongoing because we are also planning to support them to ensure the project is delivered on scheduled.

“We are looking at providing all necessary support both financial and otherwise to ensure that the project is completed within the time frame.

“We are also looking at providing support widow for Dangote group that that be used to fund its projects to completion.
“The impacts of the projects are not going to be felt in Nigeria alone but across African especially West African, so for us it’s a strategic partnership were building.

“Because if we help them to impacts live across the continent they we equally help in delivering on our mandate to meet the objective of Afreximbank.

“It’s a wonderful facility that need to be publicise to the world, the projects is the largest in the world which we supply not only Nigeria but West Africa,’’ he stated.

Chief Operating Officer (COO), Dangote Industries Limited, Olakunle Alake, said that the board members of Afreximbank, which are partners from Cairo in Egypt came to see the level of ongoing projects.
Alake said that the fertilizer project is gradually nearing completion, adding that work has also commenced on the refinery project.

He said that foreign exchange remained a major challenge to the projects, adding that forex has moved up from N280 per dollar to N310 now, which had further increased the company’s losses.

According to him, there are still serious challenges in sourcing for foreign exchange, it is a challenge we found ourselves. We are posed to complete the projects within the time frame to ease the forex problem.

“We are engaging the Federal Government to support the private initiatives by providing funding to the projects.

“Government through the Bank of Industry (BoI) schemes has given us credit facility of N50 billion to develop the fertilizer plant project.

“We have also gotten another approval of N75 billion for the refinery which we have not disbursed,’’ he said.

The COO of Dangote said that the $17 billion refinery project would crash the price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), because the product will be refined in-country, and will therefore save some costs incurred in the import market.

He urged government to sincerely pursue the diversification of the economy, he said that projects such as these are needed to wean Nigeria from relying solely on oil as well as optimise government revenue.

According to him, the best way of diversification for Nigeria was agriculture and out fertelizer plant is in line with that goal.