Africa's richest person just opened a $19 billion oil refinery to help Nigeria reduce fuel imports

• Aliko Dangote is the richest person in Africa, data from the Forbes Billionaires Index shows.
• Dangote founded and chairs Dangote Cement, Africa's largest cement producer.
• After years of delays, he's opened a huge oil refinery in Nigeria.

Africa's richest person has opened one of the world's largest oil refineries in Nigeria.

Aliko Dangote, the billionaire founder and chairman of the multinational conglomerate the Dangote Group, opened the Dangote Petroleum Refinery in a bid to help make Nigeria self-sufficient in fuel.

The $19 billion refinery, in the coastal city of Lekki, near Lagos, has suffered years of delays and setbacks, but it finally began production last week.

Appearing on The David Rubenstein Show in 2020, Dangote said oil made up around 90% of Nigeria's foreign exchange and 60% of government revenue.

However, the oil-rich country must import most of its fuel due to its lack of refining facilities. This is something that the new Dangote refinery aims to change by eventually producing up to 650,000 barrels a day.

But Rafiq Raji, a senior associate with the Center for Strategic and International Studies' Africa Program, told Business Insider that he'd be "hugely surprised" if the refinery could produce even 100,000 barrels a day at first, and was unlikely to operate at full capacity before 2027.

"Yields will be hugely suboptimal" at the "current stage of completion," Raji said, adding that "they'd make more money by simply selling the crude."

Aliko Dangote

Dangote was born into a wealthy Nigerian family as the great-grandson of Alhassan Dantata, one of West Africa's richest men.

He studied business at Al-Azhar University in Egypt before returning to Nigeria to set up a business trading cement.

This later blossomed into the publicly traded Dangote Cement, which is Africa's largest cement producer.

Dangote has a net worth of $18.5 billion and is 98th on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Forbes puts his wealth at $ 17 billion, which males makes him Africa's wealthiest person.

Dangote told Rubenstein in his 2020 interview that that title came with "a lot of baggage" and many demands, but he saw that as a positive thing as he enjoyed giving back to society.

Dangote is involved in several philanthropic ventures, including trying to eradicate polio in Africa with the help of Bill Gates and building a "world-class" hospital in Nigeria.

In a post on his personal blog in June, Gates said he had been "lucky to call Aliko Dangote a friend for many years," adding that they had "a ton in common: Both of us started successful businesses and then, for our second acts in life, we chose to start foundations aimed at improving health and education."

Gates said Dangote had supported the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and helped work with it on areas such as "malnutrition, food fortification, and polio."

Outside of philanthropy, Dangote has also expressed interest in buying the English Premier League soccer club Arsenal, but old Rubenstein he wanted to focusing on the refinery first.