Dangote Group sign $997m Grant with USTDA on Proposed Dangote Refinery

Proposed Dangote Refinery
From Benjamin A Ameh, Lagos
The grant is expected to be for the training of more than 100 staff on the use of UOP technology licensing and engineering services.
A grant of $997.4 million dollars as training support for the proposed Dangote refinery was announced on Thursday in Lagos by the United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA).
According to News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the grant was signing between Dangote Group and the USTDA.
Sometime ago, in May, Dangote Group declared that the proposed refinery would begin operation in the first quarter of 2018 with an investment of about 9 billion dollars.
Ms. Enoh Ebong, USTDA’s Deputy Director, said the agency was pleased to support the Dangote Oil Refining Company’s efforts to increase Nigeria’s oil refining capacity.
Ebong was of the opinions that “sign of deepening the United States’ long history of support for vital infrastructure in Nigeria.’’
“Since 1981, the USTDA has been operating in Nigeria with primary concerns in the area of oil and energy, and we are glad to continue in that line with what we are doing today,” she said.
Aliko Dangote, the Chairman, Dangote Group, lauded USTDA for its assistance toward the takeoff of the refinery.
Dangote said the aspect of training and capacity development was vital to the success of the project.
“For such a high-tech project investment, getting the right quality of human capital to run the plant is considered to be possibly the most critical success factor.
“We are, therefore, most grateful for the generous grant from the USTDA to support the training of some of the operators needed to successfully operate the Greenfield 650,000 bpd capacity refinery,” he noted.
While Ms. Dehab Ghebreab, the Acting Consul General, US Consulate, in her remarks, said the success of the refinery could make Nigeria a haven of ‘miraculous’ economic growth within the next five years.
She urged the Nigerian Government to keep partnering with the private sector for better economic growth.