Aliko Dangote
Speaking in an exclusive interview with This Day,
the President/Chief Executive of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote,
has dismissed viral reports that his comments on the sale of the
national assets was self-serving, saying he was not interested in any of
the assets.
Following the mixed reactions and criticisms that has trailed the
billionaire businessman's advocacy for the sale of the Nigeria's
national assets as a quick measure to fund the 2016 budget and boost the
country’s foreign exchange reserves, Dangote, stressed that if the
Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Company or any other national asset
was offered to him, even on credit, he would not be interested in
acquiring them.
According to ThisDay, the Africa’s richest man, said he offered his
proposal to sell some of the country's assets as a way out of Nigeria’s
present economic recession because he is “a true Nigerian who really wants the issues about the economy to be sorted out”.
“You know the issue, once your reserves are low, the banks,
entrepreneurs, including external forces, would definitely attack your
currency. They would speculate on your currency.
“We all know that the exchange rate of almost N500 to the
dollar is not a true reflection of the value of the currency – the naira
cannot be almost N500 to the dollar!
“But you see, if this thing is not handled properly, it can get
out of hand. It can get to N600 to the dollar, or even N700 to the
dollar.
“But the issue is, why did I suggest that we should sell some
of the assets? I know the touchy one is the NLNG. I want to make it
categorically clear that even if the government is selling NLNG on
credit, I am not interested in buying.
“I don’t have any interest in NLNG and I will not buy it. It is
not a business that I want to invest in. It is a mature business; that
is what people don’t understand.
“You see, we should have invested heavily in all these Brass
LNG, Olokola LNG, etc, when former President Olusegun Obasanjo started
work on the projects, but we missed the opportunity.
“Today, you have massive LNG projects that have been done by
Qatar, Australia and the United States is also exporting. But right now,
all the gas that we have is even in the ground. Even Mozambique has a
massive amount of gas and also Tanzania, and they are nearer to the
markets than we are.
“So, if somebody is even going to invest in LNG, he would go to
those areas and invest there and not here in Nigeria, because the
investment here daunting. So my own suggestion is that even if we must
sell, it doesn’t have to be 100 per cent of our interest in NLNG.”
Dangote maintained that even if NLNG was bringing in $1.5 billion
into the federal government’s coffers, once the government reduces its
stake in the company and it is run more professionally, Nigeria would
generate more funds from it.
“People are just saying it is better to go and borrow, but I
don’t know where they are coming from. You see, with borrowing, if I
have issues with my business today, the bankers who would lend me the
money would want to see me doing something first to see how the business
can survive. There would be conditionalities.
“But if you are not shedding weight, how do you expect somebody
to help you with funding? You have to start first by trying to shed
weight and showing the person (lender) who wants to help you with the
assets you want to sell,” he explained.
The billionaire businessman said that Nigeria requires about
$15 billion to jumpstart its economy, saying that if the amount were
added to Nigeria’s foreign exchange reserves of about $25 billion, this
would help attract foreign investors.
“I can assure you that if our forex reserves get to $40
billion, you will be shocked at how people will reject even buying
dollars. So, is it worth it for us to keep assets that we are not using?
Even the oil assets that I am suggesting for sale, they are not the
producing assets. We have a lot of non-producing assets.
“The producing assets only form about 73 per cent of Nigeria’s
portfolio. We can also unlock shut-in oil production because today we
are losing about 700,000 barrels, be it through negotiations or whatever
with the militants. These 700,000 barrels can easily give us about $1
billion a month. So, I am not saying that you should touch the producing
assets.
“I am talking about the sale of the marginal fields and all
those non-producing and capped oil wells that we have not even touched
in the last 50 years. They have not been touched at all. They are there,
just dormant.
“These assets form about 14.7 per cent of Nigeria’s portfolio.
Some of those assets were bought by Shell and others. These are assets
that you are not earning anything from.
“But the moment that you put these assets into use, the money
that you will start getting from them, we will be talking about an
additional $4 billion to $8 billion, and you can go and borrow money
against that,” he added.
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