Nigeria, May 15 -- Africa's richest man, Aliko Dangote, has revealed how entrenched interests benefiting from Nigeria's fuel import and subsidy regime tried to frustrate the construction of his $20 billion refinery, describing them as a powerful "mafia" determined to preserve a lucrative subsidy system.

Mr Dangote said the resistance came from traders, shippers and local beneficiaries of Nigeria's long-running petrol subsidy arrangement who saw the refinery as a threat to billions of naira in profits.

Speaking in an interview with Nicolai Tangen, chief executive officer of the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund, he said these interests worked to delay access to project land and frustrate the refinery's take-off.

"All this would have been ...