The planned Dangote Refinery to be located in Lekki, Lagos State, has received a massive boost through a $997.4 million dollars grant (about N251.3 billion) by the United States Trade and Development Agency, USTDA. The agreement for grant was signed July 30, 2015, solely to develop the critical human resources necessary to operate and maintain a Greenfield petroleum refinery.

Enoh Ebong, USTDA deputy director signed the agreement along with Aliko Dangote, chairman/chief executive officer of the Dangote Group in Lagos. “USTDA is pleased to support the Dangote Oil Refining Company’s efforts to increase Nigeria’s domestic refining capacity. This program builds upon USTDA’s long history of support for vital infrastructure development in Nigeria,” Ebong said.

Dehab Ghebreab, acting United States, US, Consul General, said that the USTDA support for the project is an example of the strength and depth of the US-Nigeria bilateral relationship, adding that it will go a long way in laying a ground work for monumental growth in the country. “I believe that when government and private sector get together, great things can happen. The U.S. government’s goal is to facilitate transactions that are beneficial to both countries and there is no better example than this project. I am pleased that USTDA could assist here,” Ghebreab stated.

Dangote stated that the USTDA grant was consistent with the US government’s support for infrastructure development in Nigeria, noting that the company was looking forward to the commissioning of the refinery in 2018, he opined that “For such a high-tech project, investment in getting the right quality of human capital to run the plant is considered to be possibly the most critical success factor for the multi-billion dollar project, we are therefore most grateful for the generous grant from the USTDA towards the training of some of the operators needed to successfully operate and maintain our greenfield 650,000 bpd capacity refinery at Lekki,” he said.