Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari will commission the multi-billion-dollar Dangote oil refinery in two weeks, a presidential spokesperson said on Sunday, setting the facility up for its first production since construction began in 2016.
Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil producer, sees the 650,000-barrel-per-day refinery—built by billionaire industrialist Aliko Dangote’s Dangote Group—as a solution to end the country’s reliance on imports for nearly all of its refined petroleum products.
Spokesperson Bashir Ahmad said that Buhari will commission the refinery, near Lagos, on May 22, one week before he is set to leave office after serving the maximum two terms allowed by the constitution.
A spokesperson for Dangote confirmed the commissioning date but did not provide further details.
The cost of the Dangote refinery rose to $19 billion from an initial estimate of between $12 and $14 billion, after years of delays.
