Lagos – Foremost industrialist and richest man in
Africa, Alhaji 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 that 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.
“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 ten 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 three million
tonnes which is ten 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 three 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, 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.’’
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, Lady Maiden Ibru, had said that they were
honouring 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, Chief Olusegun Osoba,
Bishop Alexander Gianniris of the Diocese of
Greek Orthodox Church, and former Chief of Army
Staff, Gen. Chris Ali.