Dangote Refinery reacts to Togo re-import allegations

Dangote Petroleum Refinery has flatly denied allegations that its fuel is being exported to Lomé, Togo, and secretly re-imported into Nigeria, dismissing the claims as commercially illogical and factually baseless.

Dangote Petroleum Refinery is not mincing words. In a strongly-worded statement issued Tuesday, Africa’s largest refinery called allegations that its products are being routed through Lomé, Togo, before sneaking back into Nigeria exactly what it thinks they are — “a tissue of lies.”

The refinery’s pushback was sharp and detailed. Beyond the denial, it went straight for the economics. Shipping fuel from Nigeria to Togo and back would cost between $82 and $90 per metric ton in logistics alone — making any such round-trip commercially suicidal, the company argued.

“The allegation that products produced by Dangote Refinery are exported to Lomé and subsequently re-imported into Nigeria is not supported by either available trade flows or commercial logic,” the company said in its statement.

According to Daily Post, the refinery also pointed to its traceability infrastructure — tracking buyers, vessels, lifting points, and declared destinations — alongside contractual clauses that explicitly prohibit resale or re-importation into Nigeria.

The bigger irony, Dangote stressed, is that such a scheme would directly undermine the refinery’s entire founding mission: ending Nigeria’s crippling dependence on imported petroleum products.