Airlines volunteered to patronise Dangote, Keyamo clarifies

Festus Keyamo, the minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development has clarified his earlier comment on Channels TV on the sale of aviation fuel by the Dangote refinery to airlines.

Keyamo said airlines voluntarily decided they would patronise the Dangote refinery, and were forced by the government.

This clarification is coming after reports stated that the Federal Government of Nigeria had said that Dangote refinery was authorised to serve as the only provider of jet fuel, or Jet A1, to aircraft companies operating in the country.

On his X handle, Kayamo stated that “Airline Operators of Nigeria voluntarily decided they would patronise Dangote refinery in their purchase of JET A1 fuel and not that the Federal Government approves Dangote refinery as the sole supplier. That is not correct.”

Related News

During the interview on the TV platform, Kayamo said, “The airline operators just met recently. With my blessing, it’s a decision from the airline operators in Nigeria that they should only buy from Dangote refinery Jet A1.

“You can see that we’ve started a naira-for-crude purchase with Dangote. It’s all naira, no dollar component,” Keyamo said.

He explained that the timing was good as Dangote and the Federal Government recently put the naira-for-crude agreement into effect.

Keyamo stressed that this arrangement would lessen the strain on foreign currency.

“The price will no longer be subjected to the varying factors of the international market or the headwinds of oil price in the international market. It will be in local currency so we can be clear as to the cost of it. We will buy in naira. I’m sure we are going to have access to cheaper Jet A1 fuel,” Keyamo said.

Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha

Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha is the Aviation Correspondent at BusinessDay Media Limited, publishers of BusinessDay Newspapers. She is also the Deputy Editor, BusinessDay Weekender Magazine, the Saturday Weekend edition of BusinessDay. She holds a BSC in Mass Communication from the prestigious University of Nigeria, Nsukka and a Masters degree in Marketing at the University of Lagos. As the lead writer on the aviation desk, Ifeoma is responsible and in charge of the three weekly aviation and travel pages in BusinessDay and BDSunday. She also overseas and edits all pages of BusinessDay Saturday Weekender. She has written various investigative, features and news stories in aviation and business related issues and has been severally nominated for award in the category of Aviation Writer of the Year by the Nigeria Media Nite-Out awards; one of the Nigeria’s most prestigious media awards ceremonies. Ifeoma is a one-time winner of the prestigious Nigeria Media Merit Award under the 'Aviation Writer of the Year' Category. She is the 2025 Eloy Award winner under the Print Media Journalist category. She has undergone several journalism trainings by various prestigious organisations. Ifeoma is also a fellow of the Female Reporters Leadership Fellowship of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism.