Billionaire businessman Aliko Dangote has revealed the intense challenges he faced in building his $23 billion refinery, calling the oil mafia more dangerous than drug cartels.
“I’ve been fighting battles all my life, and I have not lost one yet,” he told Forbes. “The oil mafia is deadlier than the drug mafia… They control everything behind the scenes.”
Dangote said completing the 650,000 barrels-per-day refinery, Africa’s largest, was the biggest risk of his life. “If this didn’t work, I was dead,” he admitted.
Despite financial, regulatory, and supply challenges, he remains committed to Africa’s industrialization, insisting, “We must build our own continent ourselves.”
He also plans to take the refinery public within two years while overseeing other major projects, including a subsea gas pipeline and an expanded fertilizer plant.
