Afreximbank To loan Dangote $650m For Lekki refinery

Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, has agreed a $650 million loan facility with the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) for the completion of oil refinery project in Lekki, Nigeria.

According to facility terms read out during the signing, the Loan which will attract a moratorium of five years, would run for 7 years.

Cairo-based Africa’s trade bank also signed a $750 million facility with Nigeria’s development bank, the Bank of Industry.

Devakumar Edwin, Dangote Group Executive Director disclosed that the oil refinery, which should be completed by december 2019, would cost around $10 billion.

He disclosed that Standard Chartered Bank would facilitate $3.3 billion borrowing for the project, while the remainder will be funded by equity and through export agencies.

Dangote is building the world’s largest single oil refinery and also expanding into fertilizer, aiming to address long-standing problems in Nigeria’s energy markets.

The refinery and petrochemical complex is located on 25,000 hectares of swampy land with a jetty to ferry products by sea within Nigeria and abroad including an undersea pipeline to transport gas. It would account for half of Dangote’s sprawling assets when it is finished next year.

Afreximbank which is aims to foster intra-African trade through the creation of a payment platform to ease settlement and currency risks, is celebrating it 25 years of existence.