The Nigerian Content Development Monitoring Board (NCDMB) is optimistic that Dangote Refinery will boost local content policy with its 650,000 barrels per day project under construction.
The local content development initiative entails companies awarding contracts to Nigerian contractors with the aim of building local capacity.
Dangote Refinery had previously announced that so far it has awarded a total of $368 million contract to 120 local contractors. Through this, the company said, it’s contributing its quota to the Nigeria content development initiative. Dangote Refinery added that more opportunities would be presented as time unfolds, Vanguard reported.
While speaking on the sideline of the 9th Practical Nigerian Content, the Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Engr. Simbi Wabote said that Dangote had started to drive local content through the steps it had taken so far. Apart from local content development, Wabote said the construction of the refinery was also a good feat for the Nigerian investment sector.
“Also, there is a lot of sub-contract that have been awarded within the projects site, the majority of those contracts are executed by Nigerian companies. To a very large extent, that is an example of believing in your country and trying to do things to enhance the development of your country.
“Although they are sited in the free trade zone, which has its own advantages, and of course he is entitled to enjoy those free trade advantages as enshrined in the law, but in terms of local content, it is a typical example of someone who believes in his country, someone who is patriotic to establish such a monumental projects within the shores of our land,” he added.
[READ MORE: Dangote Refinery takes delivery of crude oil distilling equipment from China]
Speaking further, Wabote compared Dangote Refinery with other four government-owned refineries in the country, stating that Dangote’s refinery is a private investment and he believed Dangote Group would do everything possible to run and maintain the refinery effectively. However, Wabote said that the other refineries did not have that edge as a result of government’s inability to run businesses effectively.
In a recent Nairametrics report, Dangote Petroleum Refinery welcomed a crude distillation column equipment that would enable it to process crude oil. It is said to be capable of delivering 650,000 barrels per stream day (BPSD) as it is the largest oil processing equipment in the world.