`DON’T WISH IT WERE EASIER’

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October 22, 2025
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In two years, NEPZA chief executive, Ogunyemi has brought significant reforms to make the country’s free trade zones more competitive, contends MARTINS ODEH

Numerous empirical reviews have consistently confirmed the accuracy with which President Bola Ahmed Tinubu recruits experts for key positions in his administration. This remarkable ability to reason and anticipate the best has been ingrained in the president’s personality since 1999, becoming evident during his tenure as Executive Governor of Lagos State. Unsurprisingly, the president identified the Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA) as a key driver of the economy, expecting that only flawless leadership will interpret the mandate more clearly and with a focus on results. This left him searching for that rare individual who could deliver on the job, with the dice falling on Dr. Olufemi Ogunyemi, a distinguished Medical Consultant with specialised expertise in anaesthesiology holding licenses in Nigeria, the United Kingdom, and the United States, respectively. Beyond the world of medicine, the President clearly appreciated Ogunyemi’s unwavering dedication to excellence in Global Diplomacy, Business, and Political Economy, as evidenced by the certifications he earned from the University of London, the London School of Economics, and Harvard. On October 17, 2023, NEPZA management, the workforce, and industry stakeholders celebrated enthusiastically as they welcomed Dr. Ogunyemi, who was appointed to succeed Prof. Adesoji Adesugba as the Managing Director/CEO of the Authority. The new sheriff’s opening address about being selected to interpret the president’s policy that would positively impact the Special Economic Zones Scheme was emphatic, resounding, and reassuring. He based his reforms on three key areas: Revitalising non-performing Free Trade Zones, Digitizing NEPZA activities, and Listing Free Trade Zones on the Nigeria Stock Exchange. These steps would lead to economic growth, faster job creation, and industrialisation of the country. The c

ulmination of his open-door policy, the Nigeria First mantra, corporate governance culture, transaction leadership style, and focus on staff welfare—along with his key reform strategies—has helped keep the Authority attentive to its responsibilities in supporting the president’s efforts to achieve the Renewed Hope Agenda for economic diversification and development. In two years, the NEPZA leader has worked to build a global brand through various initiatives, including endorsing affiliate organizations like the World Free Zone Organisation (WFZO), Africa Economic Zones Organisation (AEZO), and the Nigeria Economic Zones Association (NEZA) as the key agents to help catalyse the transformation of the country’s Special Economic Zones (SEZs). For example, on October 9, 2024, he made an unexpected breakthrough into the political leadership of the World Free Zone Organisation (WFZO) when he was elected to the organization’s Board. He was shown broad support as African participants, along with their counterparts from Europe and Latin America, cast bloc votes that helped secure his victory in the Dubai election. In his victory speech, he said,

“The World Free Zone Organisation remains a central hub for Foreign Direct Investment opportunities; therefore, Nigeria and Africa will leverage this position to develop better strategies for attracting FDIs to the continent.” This is the aura that consistently surrounds Dr. Ogunyemi, a fitting figure dedicated to refining the Authority and the SEZs scheme to make them more appealing and responsive. The Authority undoubtedly remains a key driver of the government’s efforts to diversify Nigeria’s economy. With attractive investment packages and a focus on sectors that promote economic growth, NEPZA, through the free trade zones, offers investment opportunities across a broader economic spectrum for export. Currently, the scheme highlights three main investment sectors: manufacturing (45 percent), services (30 percent), and oil and gas (11 percent) of active investments. The scheme now includes 63 Free Trade Zones, which are home to over 700 businesses with a combined value of $35 billion. The Authority collects 20 types of revenue, including $500,000 in declaration fees, $60,000 annually for Operation License (OPL), and registration fees ranging from $300 to $500, all in accordance with existing regulations on IGR. There are also examination and documentation fees of $100 to $300 for each transaction, which occur daily. To eliminate discretion in revenue collection, the new management led by Ogunyemi has quickly formalised the digitisation of the collection process, which is currently in a test run. Dr. Ogunyemi’s consistent and prudent resource management has been repeatedly echoed in several meetings, including his interface with the leadership of the House Committee on Public Accounts, when both institutions agreed to ensure prompt and maximum remittances of duties from the free trade zones to the government coffers. With Dr. Ogunyemi involved, the days when the contribution of the Free Trade Zones Scheme to the country’s Gross Domestic Product was unclear are finally over. The current transparency in the scheme’s management, combined with tangible government support, clearly demonstrates President BAT’s political commitment to enhancing the country’s global competitiveness through the operation of free trade zones. The effective oversight of some of the country’s top free zones, such as Eko Atlantic, Lekki Free Zone, Dangote Refinery, Lagos Free Zone, Lagos Deep Sea Port, Alaro City Free Zone, Snake Island Integrated Free Zone, and LADOL, along with over 150 newly registered enterprises within the past two years, has helped drive significant growth. Similarly, the country’s manufacturing and export indexes were boosted by the licensing of the Indorama Free Trade Zone in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, with a projected investment of $400 million and around 5,000 jobs; the Abuja Industrial Park (ZEBERCED) Free Zone, valued at $150 million, hosting 170 factories and supporting about 40,000 jobs; and the Arise Remo Free Trade Zone, which involves a $1 billion investment and aims to create 30,000 jobs. The registration of Indorama FTZ, a $2 billion world-class zone, aims to boost large-scale fertilizer and chemical production for domestic use and export. Indorama Ventures, which ranked 14th out of 500 companies in the inaugural Fortune Southeast Asia 500 ranking, is expected to provide 24,000 jobs for Nigerians.

The zone will enable the company to increase its fertilizer production, develop a port terminal for exports, and assist Nigeria in becoming one of the world’s leading fertilizer producers, significantly impacting the country’s agricultural sector. It is interesting to note that some of the approved Special Economic Zones (SEZs) under NEPZA’s control, namely: Medical/Pharmaceutical SEZ Lekki, Agro-Allied SEZ Ilorin, and the Integrated Cotton/Textile/Garment SEZ Funtua, Katsina, along with three others planned for Benue, Gombe, and Ebonyi states, are being actively prioritised for speedy development. The Authority has initiated the implementation of the Federal Executive Council’s approval to designate the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos, Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja, Port Harcourt International Airport, and Aminu Kano International Airport in Kano as Free Trade Zones during this period. Dr. Ogunyemi’s economic diplomacy and interventions were evident across all fronts, aimed at protecting investors and the national interest during the review period. He demonstrated this by uniting all stakeholders in the free zone and enhancing cooperation among relevant government agencies within the ecosystem. His persuasive skills and subtle personality recently helped resolve the dispute between the Federal Capital Territory Administration and the Abuja Technology Village (ATV), a licensed Free Trade Zone, over the potential revocation of the zone’s land title. In an effort to quickly calm the heated dispute and tension, Dr. Ogunyemi urged the ATV operators and investors to withdraw their lawsuits against the FCT administration immediately, thereby enabling roundtable negotiations. The NEPZA boss, who also persuaded the FCT minister to retract his action on the land revocation plan, gained the minister’s support, with the minister promising to help expand the Free Trade Zones Scheme to promote the territory’s industrial growth. Similarly, under Dr. Ogunyemi’s leadership, the Authority demonstrated strong leadership and subtle diplomacy in addressing the feud between the Dangote Free Zone Enterprise (DFZE) and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASAN) on the operation of the Dangote Refinery. The regulator affirmed that its law enforces a 10-year ban on industrial strikes and lockouts in Free Trade Zones.

PENGASSAN had shut down the critical oil and gas facilities over allegations that the refinery sacked 800 workers who joined the union. The NEPZA boss expressed concern that the escalating trade dispute between the zone and PENGASSAN, given the refinery’s status as a Free Trade Zone, was particularly worrisome. Rightly, Ogunyemi expressed his strong appreciation for the quick action taken by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to de-escalate the dispute, which clearly demonstrated safeguarding the national asset. ” It is a sign of President BAT’s nurturing democracy that this has been resolved quickly without deleterious effects on our economy,” he said. Dr. Ogunyemi is a man who has given greater meaning to Jim Rohn’s philosophical insight, which says: “Don’t wish it were easier; wish you were better.’’ The philosopher stresses that success comes through persistent effort, perseverance, and discipline, rather than luck or innate talent. Rohn further describes that hard work is often viewed as a way to build character and achieve one’s full potential, but only time will reveal if it leads to a reward. Fortunately, the rewards are steadily pouring in for both the Authority and the Chief Executive, who recently earned a distinguished Gov-Tech Trailblazer Award after leading NEPZA to win the esteemed Nigeria Gov-Tech Public Service Award in the category of ‘Best Federal MDAs in Ease-of-Doing-Business.’ The award, created by the Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR) under the auspices of the Presidency, aims to encourage an excellent business environment in Nigeria. Dr. Ogunyemi has received numerous awards and honours both domestically and internationally for his dedication to resetting NEPZA and the Free Trade Zones Scheme, including the recent American Congressional Commendation for his strong leadership in overseeing the nation’s Free Trade Zones Scheme. The past two years have brought significant changes, practical reforms, and a clear plan to make the country’s free trade zones more competitive globally. It is reasonable to conclude that Dr. Ogunyemi’s focus on political will, innovation, speed, excellence, a dedicated and skilled workforce, and resilience will drive efforts to overcome the challenges that have limited the full potential of the scheme.

Dr.Odeh is the Head of Corporate Communications at NEPZA

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October 23, 2025
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Dangote Reveals Plans to More Than Double 650,000 bpd Oil Refinery to 1.4 Million bpd

•Set to list 10% of company’s shares by next year

•S&P reports oil firm secured $4bn critical financing agreement in August

•Says company pursuing Middle Eastern partners

•40,000 bpd upstream assets to begin production by end of October

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

The 650,000 barrels per day Dangote Refinery is set to more than double its current refining capacity to about 1.4 million bpd, becoming the world’s largest refining facility and surpassing the 1.36 million bpd refinery in Jamnagar, India.

President and Founder of the Dangote Industries Limited (DIL), Aliko Dangote, told S&P Global Commodity Insights, in an interview, that the management of the $20 billion refining and petrochemicals complex, is also thinking of altering its current business model and is set to list up to 10 per cent of its shares by next year.

According to the 68-year-old founder, although the ambition to develop African energy independence is a “herculean task”, it remains a ‘labour of love’ since no government in Africa is willing to put its money into such humongous projects.

“We have to build the refinery again, either here or somewhere else. But really, somewhere else is not possible because we’d have to go and spend so much building infrastructure, and we have the infrastructure already here,” Dangote said.

In Nigeria alone, S&P Global Commodity Insights projects that net petrol imports could more than double from 2026-27 to hit almost 200,000 bpd by 2030, underpinned by economic development and rapid population growth.

In July, Dangote unveiled plans to expand the refinery from its current 650,000 bpd to 700,000 bpd by the end of the year. Now, the target is to reach 1.4 million bd, with no specified date, it added.

Engineers working at the Lekki complex say it was designed with room for growth, pointing out empty concrete plots capable of holding a second refining system. Now Nigeria’s largest power producer, the Dangote Group already generates twice the electricity it consumes, insuring its operations against chronic shortages that plague the rest of the country.

Expanding could involve building a second refinery with the same configuration, one engineer said, potentially with the addition of a vacuum distillation unit to boost light ends yields, the S&P report said.

The company is also working on potential linear alkylbenzene and base oils projects, and aims to grow its annual polypropylene capacity from 1 million mt to 1.5 million mt in the next few years, Dangote said.

However, Dangote rejected a model that leaves Africa dependent on imported fuel, and said he remains determined to disrupt a market shaped by economies of scale. He is not optimistic for state-backed African projects, and warns that the continent will “really be in trouble” without huge private investment.

“Most African governments will not have the capacity to build a refinery,” Dangote said, calling smaller projects like Angola’s new Cabinda facility “a drop in the ocean.”

“In places where interest rates are 30 per cent, some countries 20 per cent, the cost of funding is high. And the infrastructure is zero,” he said.

According to the report, the Nigerian company’s own maturing debt was recently seen as a key funding hurdle, before it secured a critical $4 billion financing agreement in August.

To expand the refinery and develop a new petrochemicals project in China, Dangote is actively considering a strategic partnership with Middle Eastern companies, the group president remarked. “Our business concept is going to change. Now instead of being 100 per cent Dangote-owned, we’ll have other partners,” he said.

Within the next year, Dangote disclosed that the refining business will list 5 per cent to 10 per cent of its shares on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, mirroring a playbook established by the group’s cement and sugar businesses.

“We don’t want to keep more than 65 per cent to 70 per cent,” Dangote told S&P, explaining that shares will be offered incrementally subject to investor appetite and market depth.

According to him, the door remains open for the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) to boost its stake after the state oil company trimmed its interest to 7.2 per cent, but not before its next phase of growth is well underway.

“I want to demonstrate what this refinery can do, then we can sit down and talk,” Dangote said. A close aide, who was not authorised to speak publicly, told S&P that the company would exert caution before inviting additional participation from NNPC.

While there are bold expansion plans amid ongoing efforts to stabilise the refinery, it stated that the plant’s main petrol engine, the Residue Fluid Catalytic Cracker (RFCC), recently went offline in September shortly after a three-week turnaround in August, fueling rampant speculation over future downtime.

A Vice President at Dangote responsible for overseeing refinery operations, Devakumar Edwin, said the RFCC restarted around October 7 and should soon be back at full capacity.

“We have resolved most, not all, but most of the problems. And I think we’re looking for a window when we shut down for another month,” Dangote said, in a rare comment on maintenance plans.

The month-long turnaround will involve shutting down the RFCC, but not the Crude Distillation Unit (CDU) and other secondary units. The entire refinery only requires a full turnaround every five years, Edwin said. Dangote said that the RFCC turnaround will be planned to avoid clashing with a seasonal demand peak towards the year-end, without providing dates.

The company recently highlighted employee sabotage as a potential business risk, before its decision to fire 800 staff members sparked an acrimonious labor strike in September. After government-brokered remediation talks, the conglomerate has committed to find new employment for all dismissed workers, mostly outside the refining business.

“We don’t have any worries with the unions,” Dangote said, sharing that the reorganisation was almost complete and deemed sufficient to abate recent tensions.

As the refinery grows, the report said that early challenges sourcing crude oil only risk becoming more acute. However, Dangote welcomed a breakthrough deal with NNPC to alleviate supply concerns.

Under a current “crude for naira” swap agreement, NNPC supplies Dangote with 14 crude oil cargoes, or sources the equivalent value of US dollars, in exchange for the same volume of petrol and gasoil to be supplied in the domestic currency.

Besides, Dangote’s upstream assets in the Niger Delta, Oil Mining Lease 71 and 72, could soon provide another supply injection, with production expected to start this month and reach up to 40,000 bpd.

Dangote remains interested in new upstream opportunities, which could add to an expanding asset base for the wider conglomerate. Recent investments include a major Namibian storage terminal, an Ethiopian fertilizer plant and a fleet of 4,000 CNG trucks, as well as a potential energy project in Senegal.

•Set to list 10% of company’s shares by next year •S&P reports oil firm secured $4bn critical financing agreement in August •Says company pursuing Middle Eastern partners •40,000 bpd upstream

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October 23, 2025
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Yusuf Tuggar: Tinubu Pursuing Nigeria’s Strategic Autonomy Amid Trump’s Tariffs, China Ties

•Says world must show respect in trade with Nigeria, other African nations

•Denies Christian persecution claims

•Reiterates Nigeria will not accept deportees from US

•Says tariffs imposed by US do not markedly harm the country

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, yesterday maintained that President Bola Tinubu is pursuing Nigeria’s strategic autonomy amid tariffs imposed by the United States as well as the country’s relationship with China.

Besides, the minister noted that rich countries must show respect to Africa in their dealings with the continent, insisting that they should not approach trade with Africa as a game of ‘Minecraft’.

Speaking at the Reuters NEXT Gulf summit in Abu Dhabi, Tuggar stated that the relationship should be based on mutual respect and the need for Africa to develop, stressing that the recent tariff increase by the US did not markedly impact the country.

“Sometimes it’s like the game Minecraft: There’s oil, there’s gas, there’s critical minerals, rare earths. We put a bit of this, we invest in this. No, that’s not the way it goes. The engagement should be based on mutual respect, based on shared interests and based on the fact that Africa needs to develop. If it doesn’t develop, we continue to deal with irregular migration, with all these other challenges,” he argued.

The minister stated that Nigeria remains a major power in Africa, highlighting the country’s huge internal market with a population of 230 million, expected to grow to 400 million by 2050, and its relationships with other major trading partners such as China, India and Brazil.

Besides, he dismissed claims that President Donald Trump does not care about Africa, but stressed that the country continues to absorb the effect of the recent tariffs by the Trump administration as it extends trade with other countries.

“ We have the right and the basis to engage with as many countries as possible to trade and our relationships are not based on ideological considerations, they’re based on interests, beginning with our national interests.

“So we trade with the U.S., we trade with China, we trade with Brazil, we trade with India and our focus is not necessarily on one axis or the other, especially in a multipolar world,” he argued.

Tuggar also referred to a recent surge in claims of a “Christian genocide” circulating online and amplified by some U.S. media figures, dismissing them as false.

“One of our major challenges at the moment is the false narratives that are being created about Nigeria, this issue of religious persecution, Christians are being persecuted, which couldn’t be further from the truth, and it’s something that I think the investors need to come and see for themselves,” he said.

The engagement with the West, he said, should be based on mutual respect, shared interests and based on the fact that Africa needs to develop. The foreign minister also said there were no plans to accept deportees from the US, noting that Nigeria has gone beyond the stage.

“ I think that ship has sailed. We made our point and I believe it’s no longer on the discussion table. We continue to enjoy a good relationship with the United States. We do not see the need to take in other nationals under duress from any country because we already have a population, like I said, of 230 million people.

“So we’re not short of people and we, our focus is, as we move closer to becoming 400 million population, which we will be in the next 25 years, to train our workforce to tackle the issue of poverty, of unemployment, so that we have the right dependency ratio that would be able to sustain us as we move into the future.

“So there are lots of opportunities. We can partner with all comers to tackle our challenges as well as to provide the opportunities for those that are working with us. It’s a really striking figure and as one gets older, you realise 25 years is a much shorter time than you originally might imagine”, he stated.

On job creation, the minister explained that the first thing is for Nigeria to be able to feed itself, and will be creating lots of jobs as it works towards expanding agriculture and manufacturing and import substitution.

Tuggar said that there has to be a mindset change by the world on how they interact with Africa, stressing that the continent has come of age.

“As I said earlier there’s a tendency to take a Minecraft approach to Africa. It’s not a game and we are not infants. We know what is good for us, what’s in our interest so we don’t need to be protected.

“We can protect ourselves when we’re dealing with China. China’s initiative is good for Africa. It is something that is already benefiting countries like Nigeria, the linkages, and we are looking towards achieving similar results with Europe, with the global gateway initiative, and of course other partners like the US, India, Brazil,” he stressed.

•Says world must show respect in trade with Nigeria, other African nations •Denies Christian persecution claims •Reiterates Nigeria will not accept deportees from US •Says tariffs imposed by US do

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