What have been the main highlights for Dutylex over the past year?

Dutylex represents Petro-Canada in West, East and Central Africa, with the core focus of delivering lubricant solutions to the mining and other industries. The company opened its first oil terminal in the heart of the gold mining industry in Tarkwa, Ghana, and has established a second terminal in the port city of Tema.

In Ghana, there is a focus on local content, and we need to consider this to achieve success in our business. Dutylex is 100% Ghanaian-owned, but we represent a foreign product. Currently, the finished product is imported in small packages, but our goal is to first start importing the product in larger quantities in ISO tanks, and eventually establish a blending plant in Ghana so that the finished product is manufactured in the country. Dutylex continues to gradually increase our footprint in Ghana, and through collaboration with local distributors, we ensure our presence is also felt in West, East and Central African markets, including Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire, Mali, Burkina Faso, Kenya, Tanzania, and Central African Republic. We will continue to expand across these territories and hope to enter the DRC market soon.

What does the demand for Dutylex’s lubricant solutions look like today?

Dutylex’s growth is aligned with what is happening around us, and today, the focus is on stainability. We focus on how we can fit into our clients’ ESG strategies by ensuring that our products provide some degree of sustainability to the industry. We believe that biodegradable lubricants are the future, namely moving away from mineral-based products to a more sustainable, environmentally friendly product.

Dutylex is actively pursuing sustainability and we are grateful to have Petro-Canada as a partner, who has 99.9% purified products and a broad range of biodegradable products we can deliver to our clients. Our biodegradable products reduce costs for our clients as average drain interval times are doubled, and it increases machine efficiency, reducing the need for frequent maintenance and spare parts replacement. Our clients thus benefit from a sustainability perspective and from a cost perspective.

What have been the main growth drivers for Dutylex in the mining space?

The mining industry is and will continue to be a key sector for Dutylex. Since we opened our first sole lubricant terminal in Tarkwa, our business to the mining industry has increased from contributing 40% to our revenue three years ago to now contributing approximately 75%. By ensuring that we deliver a product that has both sustainability and economic benefits to our clients we will continue to grow our footprint in the mining industry in Africa. With increased demands for critical minerals, Africa’s great geological endowment and the substantial capital being injected into mining in the continent, I am bullish on the demand we will see for our solutions from the mining industry, and Dutylex will continue to invest in expanding our footprint and capacity to support this demand.

Do you believe creating value in Africa and localizing supply chains will be critical to West Africa’s success in the coming years?

Africa has so much opportunity and capability, and rather than importing solutions, we must start creating value in the continent. We are seeing mindsets changing and governments, industries, and companies are starting to work towards creating end-to-end solutions in Africa. Many countries already have a great focus on local content as this is the route to ensure that Africans are empowered, and have a share in the resources. In this effort, countries also must ensure that they have a rich educational system that will empower people and train them with the right resources so that they contribute to the development of industries and the country. The realization is there that things can and must be done in Africa, and government and industry are starting to work together in following the processes to be able to create more value in the continent, eventually delivering end-to-end solutions.

What are Dutylex’s key priorities for the next year?

A key priority for Dutylex will be to consolidate the lubricants market in Ghana. We will invest in expanding our presence and capacity in Ghana, hopefully opening two more terminals shortly, as well as in East and Central Africa where many markets have great potential for us to tap into. We aim to continue growing by ensuring value in what we provide to the market.