It is a welcome relief that the Ogun State House of Assembly is about waking up, asking questions that answers should have been provided for more than five years ago.
Son of man would want the patriotic ones among them to dig into the Hows and Whys Ogun State lost the $25 billion investment that is currently giving Lagos State a new face in Epe.
For me, political myopia coupled with vindictiveness, such as is playing out today ensured that our teeming youths lost one of the best opportunities for generous employment, which would have enabled the Gateway State challenge Lagos State on many fronts.
The piece below, written by a highly placed source in the Dangote Group, got to son of man early in 2015. When some of us display anger, the naive often believe it is due to personal disappointment.
Over to the OGHA, and I mean the patriotic ones among them!
“The Dangote Industries Limited wanted to develop the Olokola Free Trade Zone by constructing a major deep-water port to handle containers, bulk cargoes and liquid cargoes which would have become a hub for the entire West Africa, a Petroleum Refinery plant, a Petro-chemical Complex and a Fertiliser plant. The total capital out-lay was more than $20 billion.
“Accordingly, the Group invested in acquiring the majority shares of the Olokola Free Trade Zone by investing a large sum of money. Subsequently, the Ogun State Government had discouraged the Dangote Group from the construction of the Port and it agreed to drop the construction of the Port.
“However, the company decided to go ahead with an investment of more than $2 billion by constructing a Fertiliser plant of 3 million tonnes per annum capacity, in two trains of each of capacity 1.5 million tonnes per annum. Each of these trains would have been the largest trains available in the world today. The plant was scheduled to meet the entire fertiliser requirements of the country as well as export more than half of its production.
“The Petroleum Refinery was designed for a capacity of 650,000 barrels per day, the largest single train refinery in the whole world (the current largest single train refinery has a capacity of 400,000 barrels per day), with an investment exceeding $12 billion. The Refinery was scheduled to meet the entire requirements of Petrol (PMS), Diesel (AGO), Aviation Jet Fuel and Kerosine requirements of the country and also export part of the production.
“The Petro-chemical Complex was scheduled to produce 3.6million tonnes per annum, primarily for export, with an investment exceeding $3 billion. These investments would have energised the entire economy of Ogun State. The state would have become a Gateway for the entire country since the Apapa port and Tincan Island port are completely choked up and, most of the imported goods primarily move to the hinterland.
“The investment into these businesses would have made Ogun State a show-case in the whole world since it would have been the home of the world’s largest petroleum refinery and the world’s largest fertiliser plant. The investments in these projects would have been more than half of the foreign exchange reserves in the country. The savings to the country in terms of foreign exchange outflows due to the import of fertiliser and the refined petroleum products would have been huge.
“It is indeed unfortunate that Ogun State lost this fantastic opportunity to Lagos State because of its approach in discouraging these investment opportunities. After having acquired the majority shares of the Olokola Free Trade Zone, the company had to abandon the site and move to Lekki, where the Lagos State Government welcomed the company with open arms.”
By Wale Adedayo.
