First-Class Engineering Graduate Working at Dangote Refinery Gets Award from Company, Shares Story
By Trek Africa Newspaper
Victoria Makanjuola, a first-class engineering graduate working as a process engineer at the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals in Lekki, Lagos, has been recognised with an award for her contributions to the successful turnaround maintenance of the Residue Fluid Catalytic Cracking (RFCC) unit.
She shared the news on LinkedIn in September 2026, just as the Dangote Refinery opened its initial public offering (IPO), giving members of the public the chance to purchase ownership stakes in the facility for the first time.
While many Nigerians were celebrating the opportunity to become shareholders of the refinery through the IPO, Victoria took a different angle entirely. Rather than positioning herself as an investor, she described her role with quiet pride.
She wrote: “I am a Process Engineer, making things work, so you can have a refinery to own.” The award recognised her role in one of the most technically demanding aspects of refinery operations. Through that experience, she said she gained practical knowledge of how a large-scale refinery functions beyond what any classroom could teach.
She credited colleagues Shafa’atu Sanda Salisu, Sepribo Nelson Bobmanuel, and Rebecca Adeyoju, along with the wider RFCC team, for making her transition into the role smoother and for continuing to shape her development as an engineer.
For Victoria, the recognition meant less than the knowledge and relationships she gained along the way. “More than the award, I value the experience and the people I have had the opportunity to learn from and work with,” she said. She closed her LinkedIn post with a line that captured her sense of purpose as the refinery entered its new chapter in the public markets: “While you can own a piece of the refinery, I’ll keep working to make it work.”
