JUST IN: Dangote Meets Tinubu in Aso Rock Villa

Aliko Dangote met President Tinubu in Aso Rock Villa amid protests over his plan to bypass fuel traders, raising job loss concerns.

Chairman of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, paid a visit to President Bola Tinubu at the Aso Rock Villa on Tuesday evening, amid mounting tension in the petroleum downstream sector over his planned fuel distribution strategy.

Dangote arrived shortly before 7:00 p.m. and left after a 30-minute closed-door meeting without addressing the press. This marks the first time the billionaire industrialist and the President are meeting at the Villa since Tinubu’s tour of the 650,000-barrel-per-day Dangote Refinery in Lagos on June 5.

While the agenda of the meeting was not made public, it comes on the heels of bold remarks by Dangote concerning Nigeria’s struggling state-owned refineries and his own plans to bypass fuel traders by supplying petrol and diesel directly to retailers and bulk consumers starting August 15.

DON’T MISS: MultiChoice Slammed with ₦766m Fine for Violating Nigerians’ Data Privacy Rights

Industry stakeholders, particularly the Natural Oil and Gas Suppliers Association of Nigeria (NOGASA), have expressed strong opposition to the plan, warning of potential job losses and disruptions in the existing supply chain.

Earlier in July, Dangote criticized the rehabilitation of Nigeria’s public refineries, stating that the facilities in Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna may never function optimally again despite an estimated $18 billion spent on turnaround efforts.

Dangote, 67, who made his fortune in cement, sugar, and flour, has now invested a reported $20 billion in the Lekki-based refinery—Africa’s largest single-train refinery—positioning it as a game-changer in the region’s energy landscape.