Basil Okoh

Nigerians, what is the actual monetary value of Dangote Refinery? Does anybody know?

Which company or agency made a valuation of Dangote Refinery and determined the value of 20% worth that the Federal Government wants to invest in the refinery?

There is presently no public knowledge of any independent valuation of Dangote Refinery either by a statutory agency of the Federal Government or any known and rated valuation company to determine the present worth of Dangote Refinery.

So how does the Federal Government know or determine the 20% value of an investment it does not know it’s present worth? Does this count as a blind investment or scam of an entire nation of 200 million people?

In the absence of an independent corporate valuation of Dangote Refinery, we are obliged to accept whatever Aliko Dangote quotes as the value of his Dangote Refinery. And by the way, has the Federal Government of Nigeria been investing in private companies previously? So why Dangote now? What is the compelling reason for Government to invest in a private equity when it abandoned its own investment in the same sector for decades?

On the basis of what we know so far, this proposed blind investment must be one of the biggest barefaced scams by any Government in the history of Nigeria. No one is talking about it. The first was the $2.8 billion missing from the Federal Government treasury at Midlands Bank in the UK when Buhari was Federal Commissioner (Minister) in the Petroleum Ministry in 1978.

Questions must be asked why the promoters of Dangote Refinery would not go to the stock exchange or the money markets, local or international, to raise funds to complete his investment. One of the reasons must be that the investment is grossly overvalued and bad.

Equity Investors will not touch it, even with a long pole. Another area of concern is that Dangote has planned for the supply of crude from the Niger Delta and the abiding fear is that crude will not be paid for and that deep mischief will accompany the accounting process of the purchase of crude.

So many untold shenanigans have happened in the construction of Dangote refinery to lend credence to all these fears. These have become fables as happens in fairy tales. We have been regaled with stories of raids on the Central Bank for dollars, of Forex purchased in 2017 at 1990 prices. So many unbelievable dark stunts seeping out.

It is obvious even to the fool that the corollary investments in the moribund Government refineries in Kaduna and Port Harcourt can only be a distraction to deflect attention from the scam unfolding at Dangote Refinery.

It has always been known that Aliko Dangote has never been a self-made and competitive businessman. Every investment and business of his has been leveraged and protected by the Federal Government. Dangote Refinery is an added example of his dependence on freeloading on Government. He will find out in the end that Government investment in Dangote Refinery is poison.