Minister of Finance, Budget & National Planning, Zainab Ahmed said Dangote Petroleum Refinery will stablise the micro economy by saving the nation 11 billion dollars that would otherwise been used for importation.

She observed that this singular investment by the Dangote Group will further encourage other investors to appreciate investing into the economy. She spoke on Sunday in Lagos while on factory tour of the refinery.

Ahmed said the investment will serve as an engine to the economy with thousands of specialisations created and deployed into the economy. She said: ” The potentials are endless and the foresight amazing.

No doubt once it is commissioned lots of jobs will be created including entrepreneurs . As a government we will leverage on the strength of the private sector to grow the economy.

It is heart warming to note that in no distant time we will transit to an exporting country, saving huge foreign exchange in this refinery in the excess of $11 billion”.

She pledged the preparedness of the government to support Dangote Petroleum Refinery to succeed just like other companies in the oil and gas sector.

Commending the group on their enhanced Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) in their immediate environmeny in areas such as hospitals, schools, scholarships, overseas and local trainings, she stressed that it is the only way to protect the huge investment as their host community will own the projects and provide a safe environment for them to operate.

Responding President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote said though they faced set-backs initially in terms of price variation and the general poor infrastructure in the nation they were however, determined to succeed and deliver the nation from the trap of importation.

He said they will not only save the nation a whooping $11billion in forex yearly but the Dangote Group will move from a 4 billion dollars revenue company to a 30 billion dollars yearly revenue.

He also said the Group will be positioned for more investments in other sectors of the economy to make the nation self – sufficient in skills, competencies and products.

He said: ” We will look at other sectors of the economy apart from agriculture where we have excelled in creating value.

Our desire is to transform Nigeria into an export based economy. In the next two years we have a projection to export cement in excess of $500 million dollars annually. We are also looking at venturing into the construction sector as we have invested a lot in that sector to build the complex”.

Earlier, the Group Executive Director, Capital Projects & Portfolio Development, Edwin Devakumar said the Refinery is flexible and set to produce Euro V products quality including crude from other African countries, middle East and the United States light oil.

He revealed that the refinery will maximise gasoline production to 53 per cent and meet local demands as against what is obtainable at 22 per cent of the existing local refineries capacity currently.

He further said that in terms of job creation the potential is enormous as thousands of jobs have been created.