Dangote accuses NMDPRA chief of paying $5m Swiss school fees, says he should be probed

Chairman of Dangote Industries Limited, Aliko Dangote, has alleged that the chief executive officer of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), Farouk Ahmed, paid about $5 million in school fees to Swiss secondary schools for four of his children.

Dangote made the allegation on Sunday during a news conference at the Dangote Petroleum Refinery, where he accused the NMDPRA boss of corruption and actions he described as economic sabotage within Nigeria’s downstream petroleum sector.

According to the billionaire industrialist, the amount was spent over a six-year period on the secondary education of Ahmed’s children, a level of expenditure he said raises serious questions about the regulator’s income and possible conflicts of interest.

“I’ve had people complaining about a regulator who put his children in secondary school, and that secondary school education, which is six years, four of them cost Nigeria $5 million,” Dangote said.

He contrasted the claim with his personal choices, noting that his own children attended secondary school in Nigeria, adding that the spending attributed to the NMDPRA chief does not align with what a public official should reasonably earn.

“I don’t know why the authority chief executive, Mallam Farouk, has four of his children that he educated in Switzerland at the cost of $5 million for secondary school alone, not university,” he said.

Dangote further claimed that one of Ahmed’s children had recently graduated from Harvard University, insisting that the totality of the educational expenses warrants scrutiny by anti-corruption agencies.

“I want to see what kind of system we are operating where people are busy destroying a country and taking money from government when their income does not match paying this kind of fees,” he added.

Despite the allegation, Dangote said Ahmed should not be sacked immediately, but rather be given the opportunity to clear his name through a transparent investigation by the Code of Conduct Bureau or any other appropriate agency.

He, however, threatened legal action if the NMDPRA chief denies the claim, saying he would take steps to compel the Swiss schools involved to disclose the exact payments made.

“If he denies it, I will publish what he paid and sue the schools to disclose how much was paid as tuition for the entire period, including other relevant information,” Dangote said.

He described the issue as particularly painful at a time when many Nigerians, especially in parts of the country like Sokoto, struggle to raise modest sums to educate their children.

In the same briefing, Dangote assured Nigerians that the pump price of premium motor spirit would drop further, revealing that petrol would sell for no more than N740 per litre in Lagos from Tuesday.

He explained that the price reduction follows his refinery’s decision to cut the gantry price to N699 per litre, with MRS filling stations expected to be the first to reflect the change.

Dangote said the refinery would ensure that the reduced prices are enforced at retail outlets, stressing that Nigerians would ultimately benefit from local refining despite losses incurred by fuel importers.

He also disclosed that the refinery has reduced its minimum purchase requirement from two million litres to 500,000 litres to accommodate more marketers, including members of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria.

Dangote maintained that fuel supplied from his refinery is of higher quality than imported blended products, insisting that Nigerians now have the option of buying cleaner fuel at a more affordable price.

The fresh allegation further deepens the long-running tension between Dangote and petroleum sector regulators, a rift that has continued to draw public attention amid ongoing debates over fuel imports, pricing and regulation in Nigeria.

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