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Namibian Prime Minister Elijah Ngurare called Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote's N$41.6 billion ($2.5 billion) fuel storage and pipeline project at Walvis Bay a gamechanger for the country, days after President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah launched the development on the Atlantic coast.
In remarks posted on his social media accounts, Ngurare described the Dangote Namibia Tank Farm and Regional Pipeline Project as "a remarkable demonstration of what visionary leadership, political commitment and investor confidence can achieve." He said the deal had been "achieved within the shortest turnaround time imaginable" and credited Nandi-Ndaitwah for bringing Dangote to Namibia.
The prime minister said the project shows African capital being put to work on Africa's own energy needs. He tied it to the South-South cooperation he pushed at this year's Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Antigua and Barbuda, and to the energy security, industrialization and job creation goals of Namibia's Sixth National Development Plan. The tank farm will also serve as a strategic fuel reserve, and its construction and operation will create thousands of direct and indirect jobs for young Namibians, he said. He urged Namibians to back the investment.
From near miss to presidential project
Ngurare's account of a fast deal differs from the one Nandi-Ndaitwah gave at the Nov. 4 launch outside Walvis Bay. The president said government delays had frustrated Dangote's team and nearly cost Namibia the investment, and that she had to call Dangote personally and "plead with him to hold on." She moved the project under the Office of the President, where it will stay until completion, with Kaire Mbuende, director-general of the National Planning Commission, coordinating the work.
The terminal will store fuel from Dangote's 650,000-barrel-a-day refinery outside Lagos. Pipelines from Walvis Bay are planned to run inland to Otjiwarongo and Rundu and on to neighboring countries, with Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and the Democratic Republic of Congo among the target markets. Most of those countries now rely on road tankers. Dangote said construction will take 18 to 20 months.
Regulatory work is still in progress. Dangote Industries Namibia Ltd. applied in August for an environmental clearance certificate covering the subdivision of about 70 hectares of industrial land on Farm 58 at Walvis Bay, where it plans 1.6 million barrels of petrol and diesel storage. The company's filing made clear that construction cannot start until a separate environmental impact assessment is completed and approved.
A bigger Africa plan
The Walvis Bay terminal is one piece of a broader expansion. In an interview published Tuesday, Dangote said his group's investment program across Africa could reach $65 billion over four years, up from the $60 billion he cited at the Namibia launch. About $50 billion would go to existing businesses and $15 billion to new ventures, some not yet announced, funded from free cash flow, internally generated equity and debt.
The plan covers a 700,000-barrel-a-day expansion that would take the Lagos refinery to about 1.4 million barrels a day, 20 fertilizer blending plants across Africa, an initial 10,000 megawatts of power with partner governments and cement capacity of 100 million metric tons. Dangote said he expects close to 90,000 people to be working on the refinery and fertilizer projects in Lagos by next year, and that he plans to start mining potash and phosphate in the Republic of Congo soon.
He said creating jobs for Africa's young population is his biggest concern, and that producing fertilizer on the continent would keep supply steady through the year and cut reliance on imports routed through ports such as Djibouti.
Dangote, 69, built the Dangote Group from a Lagos trading business into Africa's largest industrial conglomerate, with interests in cement, sugar, fertilizer and oil refining. He is Africa's richest person, with a fortune Forbes estimates at $55.4 billion.
Figures were converted at N$16.6 to the dollar.
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