The chairman of First HoldCo, Femi Otedola, says he is optimistic that the naira will strengthen meaningfully and will trade below N1,000/$1 before year-end as domestic refining is fully underway.
On Wednesday, Dangote refinery announced that the plant is now operating at its full capacity of 650,000 barrels per day (bpd).
The company said operations reached full capacity after fully restoring and optimising its crude distillation unit (CDU) and motor spirit (MS) production block following scheduled maintenance.
In a post on Thursday, Otedola noted that with domestic refining now firmly in place after decades of import dependence, pressure on the foreign exchange market is expected to ease significantly.
“I am optimistic that the naira will strengthen meaningfully, and trading below ₦1,000/$1 before year-end is increasingly within reach,” Otedola said.
He also congratulated Aliko Dangote, founder of the refinery, on the remarkable “achievement of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery reaching its full 650,000 barrels per day capacity.”
“More importantly, it is transformational for Nigeria and Africa. Supplying up to 75 million litres of PMS daily changes our energy narrative and conserving foreign exchange,” Otedola added.
Otedola noted that Dangote is not stopping here, revealing that an additional $12 billion expansion is underway to increase refining capacity to 1.4 million bpd, alongside 2.4 million tons of polypropylene and 400,000 metric tons of linear alkyl benzene for detergent production.
“Work has already commenced in earnest,” Otedola said.
He concluded by saying, “Nigeria is proud” of Dangote, whom he described as his brother.
On January 29, the naira appreciated to N1,400.47 against a dollar at the official section of the FX market.