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Nigeria To End Fuel Imports As 650,000pbd Dangote Oil Refinery Takeoff

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Dangote Petroleum Refinery which commences production today, will help Nigeria transited from being the largest importer of these products to a net exporter.

Aliko Dangote, the President and CEO of Dangote Group, affirmed this during the inauguration ceremony of the plants by the outgoing President, Muhammadu Buhari, at the Lekki Free Trade Zone in Lagos.

“This project is just the beginning of a great journey, a milestone in a new and exciting trajectory for the downstream sector of Nigeria’s Oil and Gas Industry. 

“It is our firm commitment that we will replicate in this sector, what we have achieved in the cement and fertilizer markets, where Nigeria transited from being the largest importer of these products to a net exporter,” said Dangote.

He disclosed that the first product of the refinery “will be in the market before the end of July, or  beginning of August this year.”

He stated that given the 650,000 barrel per day processing capacity, the refinery is more than able to meet all of Nigeria’s domestic fuel consumption, which is about 450,000 barrels per day. This leaves the excess production of 200,000 bpd available for export.

” The group’s huge investment of over $18.5 billion in the oil and gas industry has been prompted by the desire to support and contribute our quota to the Federal Government’s sustained effort to transform our economy and properly position our country as the leading Nation in Africa, and a respected member among emerging economies in the world.

“Beyond today’s ceremony, our first goal is to ramp up production of the various products to ensure that within this year, we can fully satisfy our nation’s demand for high-quality products to enable us to eliminate the tragedy of import dependency and stop, once and for all, the dumping in our market of toxic sub-standard petroleum products,” he said.

He added that beyond the local market, the group intend to ensure that the plants are run at the highest capacity utilization and highest efficiency to enable us to export competitively to other markets, especially in the ECOWAS and the wider Africa Region in which 53 countries out of 55 are dependent on imports to meet their petroleum products demand.

Gratitude For Projects’ Supports 
Dangote thanked President Muhammadu Buhari and Nigerians, for the immeasurable support his company got from the inception of the project to its completion.

“Well, what I want to share with Nigerians is actually to show my gratitude and that of the Dangote Group, for all the assistance that we got from the President, from the Federal Government of Nigeria, from even the President-Elect, because he also set the pace by creating the Lekki Free Trade Zone as part of his dream.
And also we want to thank Governor Fashola, Governor Ambode and Governor Sanwo-Olu; because they have given us all the assistance that we were looking for.

“We thank all Nigerians for giving us their support which is too numerous to mention,” he said.

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Senate Constitutes Abdullahi Yahaya Tax Harmonisation Committee

Altogether, the four Tax Reform bills were Executive Bills transmitted by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to the two chambers of the National Assembly in November last year.

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The Senate on Thursday constituted a committee saddled with the responsibility of harmonizing its amendments to the tax reform bills with the House of Representatives version for final transmission to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, announced this during plenary after the passage of the bills.

Akpabio named senator Abdullahi Yahaya (Kebbi North) as chairman of the committee.

The members of the committee as announced by the Senate President are Senate Minority Leader, Abba Moro (PDP, Benue South), Chief Whip, Tahir Mongumo (APC, Borno North), Enyinnaya Abaribe (Abia South), Abdulaziz Yari (Zamfara), and Solomon Adeola (APC, Ogun West).

Earlier, the remaining two Tax Reform Bills — the Nigeria Tax Bill 2025 and the Joint Revenue Board (Establishment) Bill, 2025.

This was in addition to passage of the Nigeria Revenue Service (Establishment) Bill, 2025, and the Nigerian Tax Administration Bill, 2025.

Altogether, the four Tax Reform bills were Executive Bills transmitted by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to the two chambers of the National Assembly in November last year.

The passage of the bills was sequel to the consideration and adoption of a report of the Senate Committee on Finance presented by its Chairman, Senator Sani Musa (APC, Niger East).

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Meta’s Exit to Throw 20 million Nigerian MSMEs Out of Business

The Global System for Mobile Communications Association reported that Nigerian MSMEs rely heavily on Facebook and Instagram for sales, customer engagement, and brand visibility.

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A Digital Marketing Consultant at EssenceMediacom, Olayinka Shobola, believes that a shutdown of Facebook and Instagram operations in Nigeria would deal a serious blow to Nigeria’s digital economy, especially millions of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs).

The Global System for Mobile Communications Association reported that Nigerian MSMEs rely heavily on Facebook and Instagram for sales, customer engagement, and brand visibility.

“Meta Platforms’ threat to halt operations in Nigeria could devastate 56 percent of the nation’s 39.6 players in the information technology space,” Shobola said, stressing that such an exit would erode tax revenues and force businesses to seek costly alternatives, as a $290 million fine dispute with regulators intensifies.

“Businesses that built their brands on Meta’s platforms would face immediate challenges.

The platforms have become essential tools for business survival and growth in Africa’s largest economy, where SMEs contribute nearly 50 per cent to GDP and represent more than 96 per cent of registered businesses.

“Most likely affected businesses will pivot to platforms like X or TikTok for short-term survival, but long-term, they’ll need to invest in standalone e-commerce or offline channels,” Shobola said.

“Jobs will take a hit; marketers, influencers, and agencies will lose contracts overnight.”

Statista forecasts a $148.2m social media ad market in 2025, with Facebook commanding up to $120m, driven by 38 million ad-reachable users.“My shop practically lives on these platforms, especially Instagram,” Lagos-based baker Fatima Tunde said. “If it’s gone, I’m out of business.”

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UAE Invests in $25bn African- Atlantic Gas Pipeline

The gas pipeline will connect Nigeria’s gas network with Morocco’s southern city of Dakhla and then go northward toward Europe.

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Gas pipelines

Morocco’s Minister of Energy Transition and Sustainable Development, Leila Benali, said that the UAE is now one of the supporters of the Nigeria to Morocco gas pipeline project, which is estimated to cost $25 billion.

“The project now called the “African-Atlantic Gas Pipeline”, has won the support of IDB, OPEC Fund, EIB and the UAE,” Benali told Nigerian lawmakers, this week.

Benali also said that Morocco has finished all the feasibility and engineering studies needed for the pipeline.

Moroccan industry experts said that the project has already passed the feasibility study and Front End Engineering Design stages.

The gas pipeline will connect Nigeria’s gas network with Morocco’s southern city of Dakhla and then go northward toward Europe.

The line will pass through 15 African countries, boosting trade, development, and access to electricity in the region.

In Phase One, it will link Morocco to gas fields near Senegal and Mauritania, and connect Ghana to the Ivory Coast.

Phase Two will link Nigeria to Ghana, while Phase Three will connect the Ivory Coast to Senegal.

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