Naira May Trade Below ₦1,000/$1 by End of 2026, Says Otedola

Billionaire businessman Femi Otedola has projected that the naira could trade below ₦1,000 against the US dollar before the end of 2026, driven by the Dangote Petroleum Refinery reaching its full production capacity of 650,000 barrels per day.

In a post on X on Thursday, Otedola congratulated Aliko Dangote on the milestone, describing the development as transformational for Nigeria and Africa.

He noted that the refinery’s ability to supply up to 75 million litres of Premium Motor Spirit daily would reduce the country’s dependence on imported fuel and ease pressure on foreign exchange.

“With domestic refining now firmly underway after decades of reliance on imports, pressure on the foreign exchange market should ease significantly,” Otedola wrote.

“I am optimistic that the naira will strengthen meaningfully, and trading below ₦1,000/$1 before year-end is increasingly within reach.”

The naira traded at approximately ₦1,354 to the dollar on the official market on Thursday and between ₦1,430 and ₦1,440 on the parallel market its strongest level in over two years, according to market sources.

Otedola also disclosed that Dangote is pursuing a $12 billion expansion to increase refining capacity to 1.4 million barrels per day. The project includes plans to produce 2.4 million tonnes of polypropylene and 400,000 metric tonnes of linear alkyl benzene, a key raw material for detergents.

He said work on the expansion had already commenced.

The refinery’s full capacity milestone comes amid sustained efforts by the Central Bank of Nigeria to stabilise the foreign exchange market, improve liquidity, and reduce the gap between official and parallel rates.