I must really thank you for doing a great job. My own vision of Africa because I sat down one day and I said, 'Okay, fine. Everything is about potential, potential, potential. How do we get this potential into reality? How do we really, you know, make sure we transit from potential to real economic growth?' And I said, 'I know, maybe it's better. Let me get all the big guys in Africa who really care much about Africa, like minds, and see how do we really sit down together and craft a vision for Africa?' Because when you look at it, every single thing, you know, is like people are just putting roadblock for Africa not to escape our own cage where we are. So, we set up this group, which I'm very happy that you accepted to be a member, you know, to see, 'Okay, fine. You look at Africa today, you know, if somebody like myself, I need 38 visas to move around. How do I now invest if I'm not able to move around? I mean, 38 visas doesn't make sense. Nobody has time to go and apply for visa, take your passport, and whatever. And most of them, they don't do visa on arrival.' So, we look at that one, free movement of people. Free movement of goods and services. These are critical areas. Without this, there's no way we are going to have a very prosperous Africa. You know, because with this, I cannot move my goods from Nigeria, from Lagos, to Republic of Benin. And when you try to cross the border, you can be there for a week if you are lucky. If you are not lucky, you don't know anybody, you're going to be there for 2 weeks. There's no way you can do a trade with your neighbors like this. Then, we look at the sector of transportation. When you look at it, most of the people who own ships that move goods around they are owned by other nationalities, not Africans. And it cost us, for example, to go from Lagos, I mean, port to Accra more than coming from Spain to Lagos. Then you talk about aviation. When you talk about aviation from Lome to Accra, somebody will charge you $600. How do you move around? People cannot afford this kind of, you know, I mean, $600 is a lot of money.
Yeah, but Aliko, you are as usual, you are not taking a lot of credit for what things you did. Let me push you a little bit on something. Yes, a lot of people have been talking about these ideas and making the diagnostic. But the difference that you're making is that you're making it happen. We all in our professional careers saw that a lot of discussion, diagnostics, a lot of problems. But when you come to crossing the line and making it a reality, it's becoming more great. You go and did something which is quite amazing. Say Nigeria knows it needs to reduce more value addition on something that he has in abundance, which is oil. And you built a refinery, I understand, more than $20 million. So, how did this big idea come to you? And what were the steps? Because it's the first time you say that people say, you know, Aliko is just dreaming, it's not possible to do that. Yeah, you're right. But you were persistent and did it. Why did you do it?
Okay, you see, first of all, when you look at in Nigeria, you are right. We have a lot of oil. At one point, we are exporting 2.4 million barrels per day and not processing one barrel. Every single, you know, product that we use, whether it's gas, oil, gasoline, jet fuel, everything is imported. You know, Mokhtar, to tell you the truth, Dangote Refinery was always on the agenda of discussion. Always. And when you hear 650,000 barrels, all the trading companies, all the big corporations, they always tell people openly, this refinery will never happen. You know, at the end of the day, fast forward, Mokhtar, we as an African company will be able to deliver. But let me tell you what will surprise you more. Because, I mean, I must thank you for IFC taking also a risk on us because you are part of our pool of funding. And to tell you the truth, at the time when I started this refinery, Mokhtar, I have never ever seen crude oil in my life. Never. Yes. Never. I always avoided crude oil because for us in Nigeria, once you say that, you're in oil, it's a dirty business. And I wanted to do a clean business, so I left the oil. It is just because I've seen my country suffering. I've seen that when I look at it, all African countries, apart from Algeria and Libya at that time when we started, everybody was importing. Nobody had sufficiency in petroleum products. And I said, 'No, no, this cannot continue.' You know, we had to establish a company where we did the EPC, which is engineering, procurement, and construction. Every single nut and bolt we bought, we shipped. Ordering of the equipments we did. We put every single thing together to now achieve that. And it now, people have seen the benefit of it. Today, the refinery we have tested the refinery up to 661,000 barrels per day. But we have been now stable for the last 2 months at 650,000 barrels per day. And every single department is working. So you can see that's what we have actually done. And when we look at it, Mokhtar, we say that, 'Okay, fine, you know, this thing now has removed fears in us.' And we're saying that, 'You know, for Africa to develop, some of us we must take that risk in terms of opening up Africa. How do we open up Africa? We will open Africa by demonstrating that we believe in Africa, by investing our money in Africa.' Because if I don't invest my own money, I can never go to any conference and convince people that Africa is a good place to come and invest. But right now, I have a voice. Right now, I have a mouth to say, 'Hey, come and invest in Africa.' Because I've demonstrated that, 'Look, these things they are possible.'
