Aliko Dangote
Foremost industrialist and richest man in Africa, Aliko Dangote,
has restated his commitment to assist the Federal Government in turning
around and diversifying the country’s economy.
He said this in Lagos on Friday where he was honoured as “Man of the Year 2015” by The Guardian Newspapers Limited.
He said he was working hard with his company to take Nigeria to the
next level and that within the next two and half years, Nigeria was
going to excel in some critical areas.
“We want to do that by looking at critical areas where Nigeria
is not doing well in terms of local production and tackle the problem
areas,” Mr. Dangote said.
“Number one is refinery, Dangote Group is building a refinery
which will produce 650,000 barrels of petrol per day; the current
capacity that we have as a country now, both the ones that are working
and the ones not working, is just 450,000 barrels per day.
“Our petrochemical is 10 times that of Eleme, we are at 1.3
million, Eleme is 120,000, so it will be the largest petrochemical
industry in Africa.
“In fertilizer production, we are not only trying to satisfy
the market, but our size is 3 million tonnes which is 10 times more than
what is available in Nigeria today.
“We are trying to make sure we satisfy the local needs and also
export and we thought about how to address our power issues, the only
way we can address power issues is to have enough gas and sort out
distribution.
“Distribution is important because unless you collect money from the consumers, you cannot grow.
“There are two sub-sea gas pipelines coming from Bonny which
will produce about 3 billion volume of gas which is exactly about the
same size of LNG.
“We are committed to turning around the economy of Nigeria and
in the next two and a half years, Nigeria will be the highest oil
petroleum products export country, will be the highest in terms of
fertilizer export, will be the highest in petrochemicals export.
“Nigeria will also be the highest in terms of cement export in Africa,’’ he said.
Speaking on bailouts for the states, Mr. Dangote said: “I don’t
believe the Federal Government should continue to be bailing out the
states, the states have to sit down and plan to cut costs instead of
looking for bailout and being lazy.
“They can create jobs and give incentives to people to come and
invest, they should assure people that they are not going to be slammed
with various taxes which is what some of them do.’’
Mr. Dangote added that the current situation of the economy would
push people to work harder, to work in terms of diversifying the
economy.
Earlier, the publisher of Guardian Newspapers Limited, Maiden Ibru,
said that they were honouring Mr. Dangote because of his impact on the
lives of Nigerians and Africa.
She restated the role of the newspaper in the society as working
for the enduring benefits of the people and being critical and
identifying as well as publicizing heroes as a way of redirecting the
values of the society.
The first “Man of the Year’’ award was presented to former president Olusegun Obasanjo in 1987.
Some of the guests at the event were former governor of Ogun State,
Olusegun Osoba, Bishop Alexander Gianniris of the Diocese of Greek
Orthodox Church, and former Chief of Army Staff, Gen. Chris Ali.
Source: (NAN)
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