President of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has accused powerful international oil trading groups of deliberately sabotaging refinery development in Africa through the operation of an offshore floating market near Lomé, Togo.
Dangote said the Lomé floating storage terminal, which holds over one million tonnes of petroleum products on vessels offshore, is controlled by these traders who sell fuel to African countries at inflated prices, undermining local refinery operations and new refinery projects.
Africa’s richest man Dangote stated this at the Global Commodity Insights Conference on West Africa, jointly organized by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority and S&P in Abuja.
“International traders maintain floating storage of about two million tonnes of petroleum products just offshore.
“These were being sold at inflated prices prices due to Africa’s lack of refining capacity. But the moment our refinery became operational, they slashed prices in a bid to kill competition,” Dangote added.
He described the market as a ‘uniquely African phenomenon,’ one that serves no purpose other than to protect entrenched interests and suppress the rise of domestic refining.
According to him, the floating market in Lome exists specifically “to ensure that no refinery operates in Sub-Saharan Africa.”
“Make no mistake, those who profit from this system will do everything they can to prevent other refineries from emerging countries.
“I don’t see any new major refining project succeeding while that Lome system remains in place,” Dangote said.
He called for urgent intervention through policy harmonization, regional cooperation, and strong political will, stressing that without government backing, no new large-scale refinery can survive in Africa.
“You are not just innovating when you build a refinery in Africa. You are disrupting a corrupt, rent-seeking system—and the beneficiaries of that system will fight back,” he stressed.
Dangote also identified Africa’s fragmented fuel specifications as another major barrier to regional trade.
NewsQuest reports that unlike Europe, which operates under a harmonised fuel standards, most African countries have separate—and often incompatible—requirements.
“The fuel we produce for Nigeria can’t be sold in Cameroon, Ghana, or Togo, even though we all drive the same cars.
“It’s a regulatory absurdity that only benefits of international traders exploiting price differences,” the Dangote group President said.
He cited Nigeria’s diesel standard as an example.
The required ‘cloud point’ for diesel in Nigeria is 4°C, which increases production costs and limits the types of crude oil that can be processed. Yet, very few parts of Nigeria experience such low temperatures, he noted.
Dangote therefore urged African regulators to address these inefficiencies, calling the harmonisation of fuel standards a ‘low-hanging fruit’ that could greatly benefit the continent’s industrial and energy future.
“If we don’t fix this,” he said, Africa will remain trapped in a cycle of dependency, inefficiency, and foreign control—despite having the resources and talent to build its energy security,” he said.
