Dangote said profiteers over time have taken advantage of the astronomical rise in diesel prices to fleece the Nigerians.
Aliko Dangote, Nigerian billionaire and Africa's richest man, has said patriotism was the driving force behind Dangote Petrochemical Refinery’s recent decision to crash the price of diesel.
On Tuesday, April 16, 2024, the company announced areduction in the pump price of Automotive Gas Oil, popularly called diesel, from ₦1,200 to ₦1,000 per litre.
This is a further reduction after the refinery had adopted a substantial price cut when it rolled out the products at ₦1,200 per litre about four weeks ago, representing over a 30% reduction from the previous market price of about ₦1,600 per litre.
Speaking on the development over the weekend, Dangote assured Nigerians that the new price would be effective nationwide in a few days.
He disclosed this during an interview with journalists in Gomber on Saturday, April 20, 2024.
The Executive Officer of Dangote Group noted that profiteers over time have taken advantage of the astronomical rise in diesel prices to fleece the Nigerians.
“It’s to demonstrate that we are very patriotic. When we look at it, diesel affects the lives of everybody. We looked at it to see how we could bring the cost down,” he said.
Dangote decried the activities of the profiteers while highlighting the expected impact of the price drop.
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“Some persons have held the business for a very long time; they were profiteering, but we decided that we could afford to sell it at N1000, which is a 60 per cent drop.
“Areas like here (Gombe), Borno, Bauchi, it was selling for N1,700–N1,800, but right now, in the next few days, you will not buy diesel for more than N1000 anywhere in Nigeria.” the billionaire stated.
Dangote talks challenges of doing business in North-East
Dangote said his company is exploring the possibilities of investing in cement in Gombe State to address the high cost of transporting the product to the North-East region.
“We are looking at the possibilities of investing in cement in the state. The state should be one of the major producers of cement because there is no cement factory in the entire North-East.
“This is a very lucrative area because you are close to neighbouring states like Borno, where you can easily go to Cameroon and Chad.
“If you produce 20 times what you are producing, it will be consumed. We are spending billions of naira to bring cement to the North-East.
“We have the limestone and others here, if we have the opportunity, we definitely will invest,” he added.
