FEATURES
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has paid a visit to the First Lady of Nigeria, Senator Oluremi Tinubu.
The First Lady’s Media Aide, Busola Kukoyi shared the photos of the visit via her X handle on Monday.
Kukoyi stated, “Former President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and the First Lady of the Federal Republic of Nigeria Senator Oluremi Tinubu after receiving the Former President who came felicitating on the Sallah Celebration on Monday 17th June.”
Obasanjo’s visit is coming barely 48 hours after the former President was seen donning a cap with President Bola Tinubu’s emblem.
Recall that a video of Obasanjo wearing a cap branded with Tinubu’s insignia at an event attended by some African dignitaries.
As Ondo govt activates surveillance for immediate response
THE Lagos State government, yesterday, explained that the strain of cholera in Lagos is highly aggressive and contagious.
Recall that Lagos has recorded 17 confirmed cases of cholera and 15 fatalities so far.
It also said laboratory investigation has confirmed the strain to be cholera sub-type O-1, adding that the subtype is associated with more severe diseases.
The Commissioner for Health, Professor Akin Abayomi, in a post on X, said the identified strain is “highly aggressive and contagious, with potential for widespread dissemination.”
Abayomi said through community-based case finding and contact tracing, the government observed that the number of cases “has peaked and is now significantly declining.”
He said: “The geographical distribution of suspected cases by Local Government Area showed that Lagos Island is the epicentre of the outbreak with 106 cases, followed by Kosofe with 49; Eti-Osa with 38; Lagos Mainland with 30; Ojo with 17; Ikorodu with 16; Shomolu with 11; Surulere with nine; Apapa with eight; Mushin with eight; Ifako Ijaiye with eight; Alimosho with four; Ajeromi-Ifelodun with four; Oshodi-Isolo with three; Ikeja with three; Ibeju Lekki with two; Badagry with two; and Amuwo-Odofin with one.
“We are receiving support from the NCDC and International partners, including the WHO Nigeria and UNICEF Nigeria.
“Local Non-Governmental organizations are actively involved in raising awareness and conducting community-based surveillance efforts.”
Ondo govt activates surveillance for immediate response
Meanwhile, the Ondo State government said it has activated its surveillance for immediate response to any case of cholera in the state.
The Health Commissioner, Dr Banji Ajaka, noted that there were two cases in the Okitipupa council area early in the year, adding that it was curtailed by the Rapid Response team of the state
Ajaka said: “The surveillance team was also strengthened by the COPREP programme with community informants/contact tracers trained and placed on stipends for eight months; they however would be deployed for active case search in preparation for cholera outbreak.”
There is no denying the fact that the living conditions in the several internally displaced persons camps across Benue State are full of agonies, pains, and discomfort, Arewa PUNCH’s investigations have revealed.
Regrettably, women and children make up the majority of inmates in the 14 official camps scattered across the state.
Worse still, most of the inmates have lived in the camps for almost eight years now, where they suffer from the lack of potable water, food, security, and healthcare.
Ironically, in spite of the despicable and harrowing lifestyle in these camps, many of the male and female inmates still manage to copulate and have children, this is according to very reliable sources and data available to Arewa PUNCH.
Our correspondent reliably further gathered that hardly does a month runs through without recording the birth of a new baby in the camp.
The cluster nature of living in these camps, marked by overcrowding couples, infected with varying types of diseases already at different degrees, according to checks does not discourage the inmates from making out time to mating in very unusual, dirty and unsightly secluded areas such as the makeshift toilets, dusty barefloor, and overgrown bushes within and around to the camp sites.
Checks at the State Emergency and Maintenance Agency office in Makurdi further revealed that no fewer than 25 new births were, for instance, recorded within two months in seven designated camps in the state.
Although, Arewa PUNCH was informed by the camp managers that there are 14 designated camps across the state, a quick look at them showed that, from May 2024 till date, the Agagbe Camp in Gwer West LGA has officially recorded nine births, while the Otese Camp in the Guma LGA recorded six births.
The Daudu II Camp also in Guma LGA recorded two newborn babies so far and the Naka Camp in Gwer West LGA has two recorded births whereas, inside the Ukpiam Camp, four newborn babies were recorded.
At the camp in NEPA, also, one birth was recorded just as the same birth record was noted a piece in both the ApIchwa and Anyiin camps located at Logo LGA.
A thirty-year-old female inmate who simply identified herself as Akpeku Nyemana of room 2 RCM Primary School IDP camp, Agagbe in Gwer West LGA, opened up to Arewa PUNCH that she had lived in the camp since 2020.
She narrated, “I became pregnant here at IDP camp and gave birth to a baby boy this month.”
However, she declined to speak further on how she got pregnant who is responsible for the baby boy and the circumstances that led to her pregnancy despite the overcrowded, undignifying, and dirty lifestyle in the camp.
However, Nyemana commended the state government and other partners for caring for the numerous pregnant and nursing mothers in the Agagbe camp.
Further investigations reveal that the living conditions of the internally displaced persons in all the camps are extremely challenging due to substandard shelters, insufficient sanitation facilities, and scarcity of food and other essential items needed for living a decent lifestyle but which are absent at all the camps visited.
Another inmate, 32-year-old Tondo who lives inside the Ichua camp located along the University of Agriculture road in Makurdi told Arewa PUNCH that all the able-bodied male inmates engage in farming and menial jobs to augment what the government and corporate bodies donate to the IDPs.
“Life in the typical IDP camp is horrible because there is no place like home. You can not get those necessities of life from these camps.
“What we do now is that we encourage the adult males in camp now to engage in farming within the nearby communities to augment whatever the government provides.”
Corroborating Tondo, a volunteer in the Agagbe camp, Terna Jacob disclosed to our correspondent on Wednesday that the Agagbe camp is faced with inadequate shelter, toilet facilities and food items.
He added that due to inadequate shelter, the inmates are camped in five locations which are: RCM Primary School, St Francis Xavier Secondary School, Police Station, Sisters Convent and St Patrick’s Primary School all in Agagbe.
Jacob stressed, “The major problems at the IDP camp Agagbe is shelter and hunger. Though the state government has taken it upon itself to be distributing food and non food items to displaced persons in all the camps across the state on a monthly basis.
Arewa PUNCH recalls that the last exercise on the distribution of food and non food items was held on May 30, 2024, by the Executive Secretary of the State Emergency Management Agency, James Iorpuu and among other items he distributed were 2440 bags of 25kg rice, 729 bags of beans, 160 bags of garri, 1520 cartons of Indomie,175 gallons of groundnut oil, 157 gallons of red oil, 905 cartons of Maggi, 185 bags of salt and 60 bags of sugar.
Iorpuu who decried the alarming rate of IDPs in the state called on all stakeholders, including the government’s agencies, non-governmental organisations, and the international community to continue to collaborate with the state government to attend to the humanitarian needs of the state.
He noted, “the monthly distribution of food and non-food items to the internally displaced persons underscores Governor Hyacinth Alia’s unwavering commitment to alleviating the suffering of those who have been displaced from their homes and are currently residing in IDP camps across the state.
The SEMA boss lauded the United Nations agencies for their relentless support and invaluable contributions towards improving the living conditions of the IDPs.
He insisted, “We appreciate the International Organization for Migration (IOM) for deploying seven of their critical sectors in our state. Their efforts in camp coordination and camp management, shelter and non-food items, livelihood, water and sanitation, and transitional recovery have been instrumental in ensuring that our IDPs receive the necessary assistance and support.
“We also extend our gratitude to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the United Nations Population Fund, and Plan International. Your continuous support and resources have made a significant impact in addressing the multifaceted challenges faced by our IDPs.
“Your contributions in providing essential services, enhancing protection, and promoting sustainable development are deeply appreciated.
“To our IDPs, I assure you that your plight is at the forefront of Benue-SEMA. We are committed to working tirelessly to secure the resources and support to improve your living conditions and to facilitate your eventual return to your ancestral homes,” Iorpuu assured.
Story Highlights
- African Union ministers have endorsed a Continental Artificial Intelligence (AI) Strategy for digital transformation across Africa.
- The strategy aims to promote Africa’s AI capabilities and ensure inclusive development.
- This initiative aligns with AU Agenda 2063 and will be submitted for final adoption by the AU Executive Council in July 2024.
African ICT and Communications Ministers of the African Union (AU) said they have unanimously endorsed a “Continental Artificial Intelligence (AI) Strategy” and “African Digital Compact” to accelerate “Africa’s digital transformation” by unlocking the potential of the new digital technologies in Nigeria and other African countries.
This was disclosed in a statement published on AU’s official website on Monday, June 17, 2024.
Over 130 African ministers and experts virtually convened between June 11 to 13, 2024 for the AU 2nd Extraordinary session of the Specialized Technical Committee on Communication and ICT.
The meeting aimed at igniting digital transformation across the continent amidst rapid evolutions in the sector fueled by artificial intelligence (AI) technology and applications.
Continental Strategy
According to the statement, the Continental AI Strategy guides for African countries to harness artificial intelligence to meet the continent’s development aspirations and the well-being of its people.
It seeks to promote AI’s ethical use, minimizing potential risks, leveraging opportunities and particularly canvassing for African content and context to be featured in the AI governance structures.
“Identifying key priorities and actions to ensure that Africa fully benefits from the huge opportunities AI offers, the strategy calls for Africa-owned, people-centered, development-oriented, and inclusive approach to accelerate African countries’ AI capabilities in infrastructure, talent, datasets, innovation, and partnerships while also ensuring adequate safeguards and protection from threats.
“The Strategy sets the roadmap for African countries to harness the potential of AI to achieve developmental aspirations to education and skills, health, agriculture, infrastructure, peace and security and good governance by developing human capital, strengthening research and innovation ecosystems, and building an AI-ready institutional and regulatory environment to ensure AI works for African people.”
Africa’s success in the global AI arena
At the ministerial session, the African Union Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy, Dr. Amani Abou-Zeid explained that in other to guarantee Africa’s success in the global AI arena, African countries should invest in its youths, innovators, computer scientists, data experts, and AI researchers.
The Commissioner commended the endorsement of the strategy, stating if followed by relevant stakeholders, Africa’s diversity would be captured in AI systems.
“Adapting AI to African realities is critical. AI systems should be able to reflect our diversity, languages, culture, history, and geographical contexts. As we aim to create an inclusive AI ecosystem and a competitive African AI market that is adapted to our realities and meets our ambitions, we believe examining and approving this strategy will provide a common vision and path to accelerate responsible AI innovation and adoption in Africa”.
“For us Africans, Artificial Intelligence presents tremendous opportunities. It is a driving force for positive transformational positive change as well as economic growth and social progress,” Dr. Abou-Zeid said as quoted in the statement.
Lending his voice, the Minister of Information, Communications, Science Technology, and Innovation of the Kingdom of Lesotho, and Chair of the Bureau of the technical committee, Ms. Nthati Moorsi emphasised the huge opportunities that stem from the adoption of AI-enabled systems to promote homegrown solutions.
The minister was of the view that the AI strategy would stimulate economic growth and sustainable development towards achieving the priorities outlined in the AU Agenda 2063 and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
What you should know
The meeting is a follow-up on the AU’s call for developing countries to have increased representation and influence within global Artificial Intelligence(AI) governance structures.
Nairametrics previously reported that the AU Mission to the United Nations (UN), had disclosed this during a Special meeting of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), a month ago.
This endorsed strategy is expected to constitute Africa’s contribution to the Global Digital Compact and the United Nations Summit of the Future in September 2024.
The committee will submit the strategy to the African Union Executive Council in July 2024, for consideration and final adoption in line with AU rules and regulations.
The development is coming after a pan-African telecom company, MTN Group, and Huawei Technologies collaborated to build a technology innovation lab aimed at accelerating digital transformation and sustainable development across Africa.
The Nigerian government is also looking forward to digital transformation across the nation
Some months back, Nigeria’s Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, visited SecureID Limited state-of-the-art facilities, commending the firm’s role in Nigeria’s digital transformation.
[Nairametrics]
Guinness Nigeria Plc has debunked insinuations that it is exiting the Nigerian market following the sale of the majority shareholding by Diageo, a British multinational alcoholic beverage company.
In a statement, the company which commenced operations in Nigeria in 1950 said it “wishes to correct the recent speculations and false/malicious misinformation alleging a plan to exit from the Nigerian market.”
Recall that last week, Guinness Nigeria entered a deal with Singapore-based Tolaram Group to acquire the 58 percent stake but Diageo will retain ownership of the Guinness brand, which will be licensed to Guinness Nigeria in the long term.
“Contrary to rumours being peddled on various media platforms, Guinness Nigeria remains firmly committed to its operations in Nigeria and is poised for a new phase of growth and innovation.
“Our unwavering commitment to Nigeria is evident in the substantial investments in infrastructure, employment, backward integration and our community development and social responsibility initiatives.
“The recent announcement of the partnership between Diageo and Tolaram Group further reinforces unequivocally that Guinness Nigeria remains committed to Nigeria and has no intention of exiting the dynamic Nigerian market. Our business will continue strongly, and no jobs or factories will be adversely affected as a result of this new partnership.”
The sacrifical ram of the Chief Imam of the Mista Ali community in Bassa Local Government Area of Plateau State, Imam Abdulkadir, has been stolen.
The ram was stolen during a heavy downpour in the area on the eve of the Ed-el-Kabir.
An Imam in the community, Malam Haruna Yaqub, who disclosed this during the sermon, shortly after the two Raka’at prayers, condemned the incident, describing it as insensitive.
Yaqub urged the people never to engage in either stealing or any act of criminality, emphasizing that everyone will account for their actions in the here and hereafter.
He said, “The Ram of our Chief Imam, which he purposely bought to sacrifice, has stolen in the night. We are really shocked by the incident. We were surprised to hear this story. This means that people are not God fearing. It is scaring that people have gone to the extent of stealing ram meant for religious activity.
“It is high time people repented and took the path of Allah. It is not too late. People should stop committing bad things and act according to Allah’s commandments.”
South-East Govs, Igbo Leaders Plots To Keep Nnamdi Kanu Detained Untill 2027 - Ohanaeze Alleges
AFOLABI
The apex Igbo socio-cultural body, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, has alleged that the South-east governors, Igbo leaders, and members of the National Assembly were plotting to prolong the detention of the leader of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, till 2027.
In a statement issued by Secretary General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo,, Mazi Okechukwu Isiguzoro, the body blamed the South-east governors for the deteriorating security situation in the zone
Isiguzoro said, “Ohanaeze Ndigbo decries and brings to light the plots by South-east governors, Igbo elders, and National Assembly members to prolong Nnamdi Kanu’s detention until 2027.
“The failure of some South-east governors to utilise their political ties to advocate for Kanu’s release is regrettable and underscores self-interest over communal welfare.”
The organisation stated that the South-east governors and certain Igbo leaders had not provided the essential assurances required to explore political resolutions for the release of Kanu.
According to Isiguzoro, “Ohanaeze Ndigbo underscores the crucial need for unity and cooperation among South-east governors and esteemed Igbo personalities, such as Chief Emeka Anyaoku, Pa Ebitu Ukiwe, Sen. Ike Nwachukwu, and others, in providing the federal government with assurances regarding Nnamdi Kanu’s future conduct post-release.
“Regrettably, it appears some South-east governors and Igbo elite have chosen to exploit Nnamdi Kanu’s detention for personal gain, political bargaining, and the pursuit of political relevance.”
The body noted that it was disheartening that certain South-east governors and Igbo leaders only visited Kanu at the DSS facility to take photographs rather than actively seeking political solutions for his release.
The statement said, “Ohanaeze Ndigbo expresses deep concern over the behaviour of South-east governors, senators, representatives, religious leaders, traditional rulers, and other prominent Igbo figures who prioritise visits to Kanu in detention over seeking his release and addressing the pressing security challenges in our region.
“It is paramount for Ndigbo to hold South-east governors, Igbo elders, National Assembly members, and traditional rulers accountable for the extended detention of Nnamdi Kanu, and refrain from laying blame on the federal government or President Tinubu.
“The federal government awaits a united stance and commitments from the Igbo community to facilitate a potential release of Nnamdi Kanu.”
Isiguzoro urged all stakeholders in the South-east to set aside personal ambitions and unite in the pursuit of Kanu’s release and the resolution of security challenges in our region.
I Was Attacked And Abused Online For Opening Up On Struggles With Sickle Cell Disease – Adekunle Gold
AFOLABI
Popular Nigerian singer, Adekunle Gold has spoken about how he was dragged online after he opened up on his struggles with sickle cell disease.
The ‘Ogaranya’ crooner disclosed that he was “attacked and abused” on social media following his revelation.
Speaking in a recent interview with CNN, Adekunle Gold said he decided to create awareness about sickle cell disease after summoning the courage to speak up.
The singer said he is on a mission to make people living with sickle cell feel “safe.”
He said, “I want people living with sickle cell to feel safe, to feel like they have help and support.
“They call you a sickler… Recently, when I talked about it [my struggle with sickle cell] on the song [‘5-star’], I saw a lot of tweets from people attacking and abusing me.
“I’m speaking about sickle cell disease now because I just got the courage to come out and speak up openly about it. A lot of people can’t share their stories like I can.”
Adekunle Gold said he has been aware of his diagnosis since he was a child, adding that growing up, he constantly put himself in situations that made him sick.
“I’ve known about my sickle cell disease all my life. I knew since I was a child that I couldn’t do certain things. They said, ‘You know you have sickle cell, you can’t play football in the rain just like your peers.’ And I was like, ‘No, I want to play.’ I’ve always been rebellious,” he recalled.
“I’ve known about my sickle cell disease all my life because growing up, I had crises every time. I was in the hospital back-to-back.
“As a child, I constantly put myself in situations that made me sick. And it affected me a lot. For example, I’m not supposed to be in the rain, so what happened to me was that I would have pains in my joints from being in the rain. But I always knew that I didn’t want this thing [sickle cell] to define me.”
More...
Rema’s ‘Calm Down’ Made History, Becomes First African Song to Earn 1 billion On-demand Streams in US
AFOLABI
Says I’ve been fighting battle all my life, I’m not scared of anything
. Explains how Africa Continental Free Trade Area, AfCFTA agreement can work. ‘PMS will flow from refinery by the third week of July’
Size
For context, it is a 650,000 barrel refinery, the biggest in the world. It started in 2016.
Inside the plant itself, Aliko Dangote constructed about 126 km of road. There are 54,000 storm columns built for protection. On-site, there are over 200 buildings. Located in Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos, covering a land area of approximately 2,635 hectares (seven times the size of Victoria Island, Lagos), it is the world’s Largest Single-Train 650,000 barrels per day Petroleum Refinery with 900,000 tonnes Polypropylene Plant. At the peak of construction, there were over 70,000 workers on site.
In the course of the civil works, some 700 piles were drilled daily, and the total number of piles came to 250,000. It has 177 tanks of 4.742 billion litre capacity – you can imagine that volume. He has bought over 2,262 units of various high-duty equipment to enhance the local capacity for site works since even the biggest local civil contractors are unable to handle “even small portions of our construction requirement.” He has also bought 308 cranes to build up equipment installation capacity since the current capacity in Nigeria is extremely poor. What do you do when the biggest crane in the country is 650 tons, whereas you need a 5000-ton capacity crane? Worse, there were only two such 5000-ton capacity cranes in the world, and they were in use. So, instead of hiring a crane for $300,000 a day, what do you do? Dangote bought his cranes. 65 Million Cubic Metres of Sand were dredged costing approximately 300 Million Euros, using the world’s largest, the second largest and the tenth largest dredgers to elevate the height by 1.5/1.75 metres, to insure against any potential impact of increase in mean sea level due to global warming.
That is not all.
The refinery has a 435 MW Power Plant, which can meet the total power requirement of Ibadan DisCo of 860,316 MWh covering five states, including Oyo, Ogun, Osun, Kwara and Ekiti. Dangote Petroleum Refinery can meet 100% of the Nigerian requirement of all refined products (Gasoline, 53 million litres per day; Diesel, 34 million litres per day; Kerosene, 10 million litres per day and Aviation Jet A1, 2 million litres per day) and also have surplus of each of these products for export.
Aliko Dangote On CNN
So, if Aliko Dangote, President and Chief Executive of Dangote Industries Limited, and Africa’s richest man, says, in retrospect, that had he known the grand scope of what he was getting involved in, he wouldn’t have tried it, you would understand.
According to Dangote, during an interview on a CNN programme, Connecting Africa, “People don’t really understand what we undertook to build the refinery. In fact, we didn’t know what we were getting into. If we knew, we would have run away. We wouldn’t have tried it. It was very, very, very tough. We are sitting on a land that is more than 4000 standard football fields. The significance of this project is that we will be self-sufficient, not just in Nigeria but in West and Central Africa. I feel proud as an African that I’ve been able to prove that it can be done and we have done it.”
$19 billion cost
Speaking on what it has taken to put up the edifice, he said “we spent about $19 billion. It is going to change the game in terms of improvement. If we take in all the crude from Nigeria, it means that we will be taking about 21 million barrels per month. That would also help in terms of reducing the Co2 initiative, rather than ships coming all the way from Europe to bring in products. All the ships going out of Nigeria every month, then you have the products coming into Nigeria. In totality, when you calculate, you are talking about 480 ships of 1 million barrels. That actually will save the environment almost 1.5 to 2 million tonnes of Co2 emissions.”
Asked whether he has started making money from the project, he said: “We will start making money soon. It is not just all about making money, but it also gives us great satisfaction that we are making Africa great. We are making Africa proud.”
AfCFTA & Overcoming challenges
There has always been the issue of crude supply, and this was discussed during the interview. In his view, he agreed “that there are challenges here and there. That is the truth. We have to be very open too.
NNPC has been very, very helpful. They do their own bit. Some of the IOCs are struggling to give us crude oil. Because everybody is used to exporting, and nobody wants to stop exporting”.
Even Aliko Dangote himself asked Eleni Giokos, the CNN anchor, “Why do you think Africa is not growing as it should?”
Dangote answered the question himself: “It is because we export raw materials and import finished goods. It doesn’t matter what it is, whether it is gold or whatever. A raw material is always at a ridiculously priced amount compared to the finished goods.”
Asked how he hopes to battle this legacy system that profits from the ripoff of focusing on Africa’s raw materials instead of building capacity for processing on the continent, Dangote said “I have been fighting battles all my life, so I don’t get scared of anything.”
On the African Continental Free Trade Area, AfCFTA, Dangote believes it will be beneficial: “The AfCFTA will be very, very beneficial. If you are talking about benefits, our company will almost be one of the top five in terms of benefitting from the free trade agreement. But I have not seen any improvement. We have 3 million tonnes of Urea we export to African countries, and we have petroleum products to export. We have cement to export. We have too many things to export. What makes sense is to have the free trade agreement work. The trade between Africans is only about 16 per cent, which is too low. We have to make sure that all the regional markets have to remove these requirements of visas. We have to allow free movement of people, free movement of goods and services, and the Afcta will work. Without that, it is almost impossible.”
Intra-Africa trade issues
Dangote then shared an experience: “I am going to Egypt tomorrow, but I need a visa. They are saying that they will give me a visa on arrival if I have an American visa. But I am an African, and Egypt is part and parcel of AfCFTA. But they are saying that no, if you have an American visa, we will give you. So, they are discounting me, being an African. So, how do we trade if you’re not allowing me into their country? What I would love to see is a South African come into Nigeria to get a job without hassle. If you don’t integrate, we will never see what we call prosperity. Integration is very important. If you remember, most countries used to have what we call the Ministry of Integration, but I don’t know what happened. Some of the countries have dropped this, and it doesn’t make sense.”
Aliko Dangote has his eyes set on the future with the succession plan of the group well laid. According to him, “by the end of the year, he expects that the group’s revenue should be around $ 30 billion, thereby placing the company among the best 120 companies in the world.”
PMS delivery date
Last week, during a visit by the leadership of the senate, led by Senate President Godswill Akpabio, to the premises of Dangote Refinery, some of the legislators who had not visited the site were left to marvel at the size of the complex. The question always asked by Nigerians about the refinery is focused mainly on the delivery day when Premium Motor Spirit, PMS (otherwise known as petrol) would flow. Yes, they should be concerned, not with the price of petrol hovering around N600 and 800 per litre, depending on which part of the country you reside or you are to buy from.
In responding to the question, Dangote explained: “It is good for us to test all the types of crudes that we are receiving. You know sometimes you can buy crude and people can give you the one that has a lot of metal or a lot of sulphur. But the most important thing is that we know West Africa is a home for dumped bad fuel and bad Petroleum products. This lab that we have here you can not even find it in Saudi Aramco because we have the latest and we can test anything be it aviation fuel, diesel, gasoline and kerosene and it will give you the actual result. The longest time a test will take here is 30 mins. As for PMS, it will start coming out by 10/15 of July. We want to keep it in the tank to make sure that it settles, and by the third week in July, we want to be able to take it into the market.”
Revelations from Afreximbank meeting in Bahamas
Last week, Dangote made some disclosures at the Afreximbank Annual Meetings, Dangote likened the oil cartels to a mafia stronger than the drug mafia hell-bent on maintaining their grip on the industry.
He said: “Well, I knew that there would be a fight. But I didn’t know that the mafia in oil, they are stronger than the mafia in drugs. I can tell you that. Yes, it’s a fact. But I’m a person who has been fighting all my life. You know, so I think it’s part of my life to fight. As a matter of fact, during the COVID period, some of the international banks really were looking forward to making sure that they pushed us into the default of our loans so that the project would just be dead. And that didn’t happen with the help of banks like Afreximbank.”
Dangote also disclosed that he has paid off $2.4bn of the $5.5bn borrowed for the Lagos-based refinery.
[Vanguard]
