PHOTO: Inside the $9 billion Dangote petroleum refinery

Aliko Dangote is a business juggernaut whose middle name is entrepreneur. He is never dissuaded from entering new businesses despite the general inclement operating business environment. Given his foray into many different business terrains and the successes he has recorded thereof, it would appear he has the uncanny ability to juggle different balls at the same time and get results.

He has been declared the richest black man on the planet earth, yet his humility will surprise you. He remains unaffected by the lofty heights he has attained in business.

His business acumen is unparalleled. From the humble beginning, Dangote has nurtured a trading company to a pan-African conglomerate and a force to be reckoned with in the global arena using creativity, innovation, style, patience and commitment to his dream.

He made a bold move to acquire the Kaduna refinery in 2007 along with one of his friends in response to the government’s call to help rejuvenate the ailing refinery which, by then, had become a draining pipe to the Federal Government. For one reason or the other, Dangote returned the refining plant  to government. Since then, he had been on the drawing board deploying his business dexterity on the best way to enter into the critical oil and gas sector.

The global business community would have been shocked, last week, when it was announced that the business mogul was ready to build, in his home country, the biggest petroleum refinery in Africa. This is a feat thought to be unrealizable given that many who had been licensed to build refinery years ago failed to commence business citing the deregulation policy as a hindrance.

Those in that school of thought would have then swallowed their pride when Dangote gathered a consortium of local and international banks in Abuja to sign a term loan agreement to the tune of $3 billion to execute the refining plant project, a fertilizer plant as well as petrochemical facilities. Other African financial institutions are also expected to bring some facility while the man himself is coming on board with an amount equaling the sum being put together by all the banks. The total investment is $9 billion.