Dangote's Bet: Billionaire Looks to Dominate Oil Refining

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00:00Aliko Dangote, Africa's richest person. He's built a 20 billion dollar oil refinery in Nigeria,

00:06bigger than any in Europe. But critics are questioning whether his dominance will truly

00:11benefit the nation or mainly enrich himself as he seeks to ban foreign competition.

00:16Joining us now for more on today's Bloomberg Big Take is Paul Burkhart, one of the authors of

00:21that story. Paul, talk to us about who Dangote is and really what is what is what we need to

00:28know about how he became so wealthy. Sure. Aliko Dangote is an industrialist, really.

00:36We compared him to John D. Rockefeller. He comes from a tradition. He comes from a family that

00:42traded his great grandfather, traded peanuts and other goods to Britain. And then he made his own

00:50way to trading cocoa, cotton. He got into cement and then these other really materials that are

00:59that are essential in in Africa, industrializing and rising. So that drew his interest in oil refining

01:08and and he put in a bid on a couple of state refineries, ended up falling through because of

01:14controversy, a public outcry. But it really planted the seed for his interest in that. And he would

01:23go on to design and build this 20 billion dollar mega refinery, 650,000 barrels a day. So that's

01:30where we are right now. And Paul, depending on who you speak to, some people, everyone has a comment

01:37on on on Dangote. Do you think he is controversial? Is that a fair classification of him?

01:45It's you know, it's a difficult it really does depend on when you look at some of the concessions

01:53and tax breaks, that sort of thing that he gets from government to build what he builds and to do

01:59what he does. Some of the that may may seem to some people may seem generous on the other side.

02:07This is infrastructure that otherwise may not be built at all. And Nigeria is really on a quest to

02:15refine its own oil because it's been sending crude abroad to come back as fuel. And that's been quite

02:23costly. So Dangote's refinery is the solution. And and that really he's managed to do it. But but

02:31there have been things along the way you know that that have been questioned. And of course, when he

02:36does anything, he does it on a very large scale and he's bound to step on toes. His his relationship

02:42with the government is also quite complicated and kind of material where sometimes he seems to be pitted

02:49against them and against, you know, the the import of fuel. And and and on the other hand, you know,

02:56the president bullet to Nubu recently called him a visionary. And in some ways, you know, that it's he

03:04did realize this vision of of Nigeria refining its own crude. So so that that has to be said.