SOUTHWEST: Buhari inaugurates 2 Audacious Projects Today... World's Biggest Refinery & first in Africa rail wagon assembly plant

President Muhammadu Buhari will be in Lagos and Ogun States on Monday to commission the 650,000 barrels-per-days, BPD, Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemical complex and the Kajola Railway Wagon Assembly Plant in Ogun State.

The Dangote Refinery and Petrochemical Complex will produce Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), popularly known as petrol, diesel (AGO), aviation jet fuel and Dual-Purpose Kerosene (DPK), and other refined products.

Described as Africa’s biggest oil refinery, the CEO Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals, Sanjay Gupta, stated that “everything in this plant by way of size is the first. It is the largest single-train refinery in the world.

“There is no single column which can process 650,000 barrels per day anywhere else,” he said.

Already, the fertilizer plans of the Refinery and Petrochemical complex has started producing.

In a statement issued on some days ago, the Nigeria Employers” Consultative Association (NECA) described the Refinery a succour to a nation in dire need of industrial renaissance.

NECA, in the statement signed by its Director-General, Mr Adewale-Smatt Oyerinde, said the commissioning of the petroleum refinery and petrochemical plant as well as the fertilizer plant will bring an end to importation of petroleum products into Nigeria.

“Rather, there will be export of finished products, availability of petroleum products, thus, putting an end to long queues and scarcity of petroleum products.

“A significant plus of this feat will be the attraction of foreign capital investments that the country desperately needs, “ he said.

The NECA boss said also, that the multiplier effect of its target 135,000 direct and indirect jobs for Nigerians and displacement of plastics imports in the fiscal space were a part of the economic springboard the refinery would bring to the Nigerian economy.

He said, in addition, that it would lead to skills transfer and technology acquisition opportunities with beneficial impacts on the downstream sector.

“This refinery in a sum, is one edifice that will turbo-charge the engine of the Nigerian economy.

“It will also unstrap the strings holding the development of the economy and wade off external and domestic headwinds against efficacies of fiscal and monetary instruments, “ he said.

Oyerinde said also that the refinery, with 60 per cent of the production capacity, could meet the entire consumption needs of the country.

He said that the other 40 per cent would be exported, generating a huge amount of foreign exchange.

According to him, this in no small measure, will impact positively on the country’s balance of payment.

“We call on government and other stakeholders to pay more attention to creating an enabling environment for organised businesses to thrive so that we have more private sector investment to reengineer the nation’s economy, “ Oyerinde said.

In the same vein, the Minister of Transportation Engr Jaji Mu’azu Sambo, the Minister of State for Transportation Adewale Adewole Adegoroye, are expected to lead other top government functionaries to host President Buhari for the commissioning of the rail wagon Assembly plant in Ogun

It is expected that the Assembly plant will be inaugurated at 12 noon, shortly after inauguration of the Dangote Refinery.

The Railway Assembly Plant, described as the first on the African continent is one of the two projects donated by the Chinese government through the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) to Nigeria.

The second project is the University of Transportation, being built in Daura, Katsina State.

The foundation of the Kajola Assembly plant was laid by the Acting President Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, (as he then was) in 2017.

This was after the commencement of the Lagos-Ibadan Standard Gauge railway project.

The Wagon Assembly plant will commence production of spare parts in its first phase.

In the second phase, the plant is expected to also begin assembly of wagons and coaches for Nigeria and other countries, generate about 5,000 jobs and help in diversifying the country’s economy..

While flagging the project take-off six years ago, Osinbajo said the project would be a catalyst for the growth of the economy, boost local content growth, even as it signals another commitment by the Chinese government in “technology transfer” and ensuring that Nigerian engineers and other auxillary workers are trained in all gamut of the railway engineering and maintenance.

With the inauguration, Nigeria would be able to source locally parts needed to run the railway operation without recourse to sourcing them from China and elsewhere.

The Kajola project will be another audacious project by the Buhari administration to expand the railway system and ensure that successive administration build on the railway modernisation master plan, which started in 2002 and meant to transform the nation’s railway architecture by 2027.