Aliko Dangote, the billionaire industrialist, has highlighted that the ability of his refinery to offer diesel at significantly lower prices will bring immediate relief to Nigeria’s inflation challenges.
Dangote shared this insight with journalists on Wednesday after meeting with President Bola Tinubu to mark Eid-El-Fitr in Lagos.
As the chairman of Dangote Group, he expressed optimism about the economy, citing a notable improvement in the naira exchange rate, which has decreased from around N1,900 to the current range of 1,250-1,300.
According to Dangote, this positive development has already begun to impact the market positively, with the prices of locally-produced goods like flour beginning to decrease as businesses spend less on diesel fuel.
He revealed that his refinery has been selling diesel at 1,200 naira per liter, compared to the previous market price ranging between N1,650 and N1,700.
Dangote anticipates that this significant reduction in fuel costs will contribute to lowering inflation in the coming months.
He stated, “There’s quite a lot of improvement because if you look at it here, one of the major issues that we’ve had was the narrow devaluation that has gone very aggressively up to about N1,900. But right now we’re back to almost N1,250 to N1,300, which is a good improvement.
“And you can see quite a lot of things have actually gone. Even people now when you go to the market, for example, something that will produce locally like flour or whatever, people will charge you more because they’re paying very high prices on diesel. And what we did, for example, in our refinery, we started selling even diesel at about N1,200 for N1,650. And I’m sure, you know, as we go along, things will continue to improve quite a lot.
“Well, even now it’s a lot of impact. If you look at it now, when you are buying N1,650, N1,700 for a liter of diesel, and that one has been cut off by almost one third to now be paying diesel at 1,200.
“And maybe eventually going forward, even though the crude prices are going up, even with that, I believe people will not get it much higher than what it is today.
“It might be even a little bit lower. But that can help quite a lot. Because if you are transporting locally produced goods, rice and other stuff, you are paying N1,650.
“Now you are paying two thirds of that amount, 1,200. It’s a lot. It’s a lot of difference. People don’t know.
“That can actually help to bring inflation down immediately. And I’m sure when the inflation figures are out for the next month, you see that there’s quite a lot of improvement in the inflation rate.
“So, a step at a time. And I’m sure the government is working around the clock to make sure that things get much better.
Because it’s in their own interest. It’s in the interest of everybody, it’s in our own interest, and I just want to thank everybody for the Nigerians to get things better.”
Dangote urged captains of industry to partner with the government to improve the lives of Nigerian citizens. “You can’t clap with one hand,” he said.
“So both the entrepreneurs and the government, they need to clap together and make sure that it is in the best interest of everybody,” Dangote said.
