'Interesting' Dangote to raise workers at refinery site to 57,000

The President/Chief Executive, Dangote Industries Limited, Aliko Dangote has disclosed plans to increase the human capacity at the Dangote Refinery Project site from 40,000 to 57,000 personnel in the coming months.

According to him, the project currently employs 29,000 Nigerians and 11,000 foreigners at the 650,000 barrels-per-day world’s largest single refinery project located in the Ibeju Lekki area of Lagos. This is the ratio of about three Nigerians to one expatriate presently, which will increase for local talent with the new additions.

Speaking in Lagos in a recent broadcast, which aired on Arise TV, Dangote said the refinery project remains the biggest in Africa and one of the biggest in the world, adding that many Nigerians were getting massive training as a way to build in-country capacity.

“When we started the project, we were supposed to bring a lot of foreign workers, but as we speak today, we have less than 11,000 expatriates. We have almost 29,000 Nigerian workers that are getting massive training.

“We are also creating a lot of capacity in the country, which will be of great help for future oil projects in Nigeria, most especially with the opening up of the oil industry through the new Petroleum Industry Act.

“It means that the country can boast of human capacity needed in the oil and gas sector. Most of these Nigerians can compete anywhere in the world in terms of electrical, welding, mechanical erection etc. We have actually created massive capacity,” he added.

The business mogul said construction of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery was informed by his desire to help the federal government tackle the lingering issue of petroleum products importation.