……Billionaire industrialist urges CBN, banks to restore confidence in oil and gas financing, demands policy consistency and stronger investment drive, says trust and good governance will determine capital inflows……
…….by olusola Bello
The President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has called for urgent measures to address the estimated $7 billion debt owed by oil and gas operators to Nigerian banks, warning that the mounting financial exposure could undermine domestic financing for the industry and constrain efforts to increase crude oil production.
Dangote, who spoke as keynote speaker at the Executive Session of the ongoing 44th Annual International Conference and Exhibition of the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE) in Lagos, urged the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and commercial banks to work together to restore confidence in the petroleum sector and unlock funding for operators.
He identified trust, transparency and good corporate governance as critical conditions for resolving the financing challenges and attracting fresh capital into the industry.
According to him, Nigerian banks should be able to provide more funding for indigenous oil and gas operators rather than leave them excessively dependent on foreign sources of capital.
He maintained that rebuilding confidence in the sector would be essential to encouraging financial institutions to reconsider their lending appetite, particularly as operators require substantial long-term funding to develop discovered fields, expand production and invest in new exploration activities
aggressive production targets and intensify exploration if it intends to compete effectively for international energy investments.
Dangote also called for greater investment in local technical capabilities and advanced exploration technologies to improve geological understanding, reduce operational risks and support the discovery and development of new reserves.
He noted that Nigeria could not sustain production growth without continually replacing depleted reserves through exploration and the development of discovered resources.
The industrialist further identified reliable electricity, modern transport infrastructure, affordable long-term financing, strong local supply chains and a technically skilled workforce as essential requirements for industrialisation.
He said expanding domestic processing and manufacturing would not only create jobs and increase exports but also reduce dependence on imported industrial products, strengthen the naira and improve the country’s economic resilience.
Providing an insight into his group’s expansion plans, Dangote disclosed that its refining capacity was expected to approach 2.1 million barrels per day within the next three to three-and-a-half years, alongside plans to produce approximately six million tonnes of petrochemicals.
He said such investments would enable Nigeria to retain more value from its natural resources while creating opportunities across the petroleum and manufacturing sectors.
Dangote also cited fresh investment commitments by international oil companies, including TotalEnergies, as encouraging developments, but urged the government to sustain the momentum by providing a more dependable operating environment.
He argued that the success of the petroleum industry should not be measured merely by the number of licences awarded or discoveries announced, but by the volume of capital deployed, projects completed, infrastructure delivered and value created for the Nigerian economy.
The 44th NAPE Annual International Conference and Exhibition, holding at Eko Hotel and Suites, Lagos, is themed, “Unlocking More Barrels: Driving Reserves Growth through Exploration, Local Capabilities and Adaptive Technologies.”
