Dangote seeking to construct greatest, and deepest port in Olokola Free Commerce Zone, about 100 kilometers from Lagos.
Upon completion, the brand new port to make Dangote Africa’s greatest LNG exporter.
Dangote Group stands to surpass Qatar’s urea output.
Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man has filed an software to construct what’s going to in impact turn into the most important, deepest port in Nigeria. “Dangote desires to construct a seaport in Ogun State to facilitate exports, together with liquefied pure fuel,” broadcasts a media report shared this week. The transfer is anticipated to speed up enlargement of Dangote’s conglomerate.
The plans for the seaport come following an deadlock with the federal government to make use of considered one of Nigeria’s free commerce zones for his mega oil refinery and petrochemical plant.
“Ought to or not it’s realized, the proposed seaport will join Dangote group’s logistics and export operations in Lagos, together with Lekki Deep Sea Port, via which it presently ships petroleum merchandise and fertilisers abroad,” the report particulars.
“It’s not that we need to do every part by ourselves, however I feel doing this may encourage different entrepreneurs to come back into it,” Dangote is quoted as saying.
Investing in LNG exports requires the laying of pipelines from the Niger Delta, all the way in which to Lagos; “an formidable pursuit supposed to overhaul Nigeria LNG Restricted (NLNG) as Africa’s greatest LNG exporter,” reads the report.
Seconding his CEO, Devakumar Edwin, vice chairman of the group stated; “We need to do a significant challenge to deliver extra fuel than what NLNG is doing immediately. We all know the place there’s a variety of fuel, so run a pipeline all via after which deliver it to the shore.”
The development of the deep-sea port within the Olokola Free Commerce Zone, about 100 kilometers from Lagos, was first introduced in March of this yr. “Ogun State, the place Olokola is positioned, is Nigeria’s second-largest manufacturing hub after Lagos,” native media experiences.
The state is house to a number of Dangote cement crops and different industries and so “the deliberate port suits into the group’s broader technique to regulate the worth chain, complementing the corporate’s 650,000-barrel-per-day refinery and urea plant in Lekki.”
In line with Ecofine, a Nigerian economics company, the proposed new terminal is anticipated to assist liquefied pure fuel (LNG) exports, that will probably be enabled by one other proposed pipeline that may hyperlink the Niger Delta to the southern coast.
“It’s going to additionally function a hub for fertilizer shipments, that are presently routed via Dangote’s non-public jetty in Lekki,” the company experiences.
Total, the port will enhance the connection between the group’s industrial belongings and West African markets. Additional, native media says the Olokola challenge may also assist ease congestion at Lagos’s busy Apapa and Tin Can Island ports, which have lengthy struggled with logistics bottlenecks.
“On the similar time, it could turn into a direct competitor to the Lekki Deep Sea Port, commissioned in 2023, which targets comparable cargo segments akin to containers, dry bulk, liquid bulk, and petroleum merchandise,” native media writes.
Sector analysts go on to level out that regardless of potential competitors, the proximity of the 2 ports might as an alternative result in synergies if such motion is correctly coordinated.
Dangote Group to surpass Qatar’s urea output
Notably the Dangote Group of firms is famed for exports of fertiliser to the US, Brazil, Mexico, India, amongst different locations. Trying ahead, the group lately disclosed plans to arrange a fertiliser plant in Ethiopia; “which is able to assist Africa’s second most populous nation develop manufacturing capability,” the vice chairman defined.
The ambitionus plan is anticipated to topple Qatar because the foremost producer of urea within the subsequent three years or so. “This may also make Africa self-sufficient in fertiliser inside the similar timeframe,” he detailed.
Right this moment, the 650,000 barrel-per-day refinery is the continent’s largest and started operations in 2024. Together with this oil depot, the Dangote Group can be establishing storage tanks to carry a minimal of 1.6 million litres of petrol and diesel in Namibia.
Dangote says he plans to checklist the petrochemical enterprise on the native inventory alternate in Lagos this yr after which refinery on the bourse subsequent yr.
Learn additionally: Tanzania’s CNG revolution: Demand for gas-powered automobiles surges
Dangote Group: Africa’s largest and rising empire
The Dangote Group is a Nigerian multinational industrial conglomerate, based by Aliko Dangote again in 1971. In line with Bloomberg, immediately, Dangote Group of firms is the biggest conglomerate in West Africa and one of many largest on the African continent.
“The group employs greater than 30,000 individuals, producing income in extra of US$4.1 billion,” reads the Bloomberg report.
The Dangote Group was created on the spine of a enterprise that traded sugar and different client items, that began with a mere USD$3,000 mortgage.
“The group would steadily broaden into buying and selling different commodities, akin to rice…and in 1981, Dangote established two enterprise enterprises, Dangote Nigeria Restricted, and Blue Star Providers,” particulars the report.
In line with the report, the agency then sought to amass import licenses for numerous commodities together with metal, child meals, and aluminium merchandise.
“He then added the transport and the importing of cement to his group’s portfolio competing with Lafarge, a French firm that imported and produced the majority of African cement,” it particulars.
In a visionary transfer to cut back financial and political danger inside the nation, says the report, the group started searching for alternatives to broaden past Nigeria.
“The corporate’s technique then centered on continental enlargement with the constructing and acquisition of cement crops in African nations,” it particulars.
Notably, immediately, the Dangote Group is a diversified conglomerate, headquartered in Lagos, with pursuits throughout a spread of sectors in Africa.
Present pursuits of the Dangote Group embody cement, sugar, flour, salt, seasoning, pasta, drinks and actual property, with new initiatives in growth in oil and pure fuel, telecommunications, fertilizer and metal.
