President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, said he will assist the Federal Government in turning around and diversifying the country’s economy.
Dangote made this statement in Lagos on Friday where he was honoured as “Man of the Year 2015” by a popular national newspaper.
Africa’s richest man 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.
I AM FULLY IN SUPPORT OF ALHAJI DANGOTE’S DECISION THAT THE STATES SHOULD NO LONGER RECEIVE BAILOUT FROM THE FEDERATION ACCOUNT. ANY STATE THAT IS INCAPABLE OF MEETING ITS OBLIGATIONS SHOULD BE REGARDED AS LAZY AND INCAPABLE OF GOVERNANCE! IF AN INDIVIDUAL LIKE ALHAJI DANGOTE SHOULD BE ABLE TO INITIATE SUCH GIANT INDUSTRIAL CAPACITIES IN THE COUNTRY, I WONDER WHAT HAS BECOME OF THE HUGE ALLOCATIONS RELEASING TO THESE STATES ARE DOING TO DEVELOP THEIR RESPECTIVE STATES? THERE ARE ABUNDANCE OF LOOPHOLES THAT ARE UNATTRACTIVE TO THE GOVERNORS BECA– USE OF THE CHEAP ALLOCATION OF FUNDS AND NOW THAT THE FUNDS HAVE BEEN REDUCED OWING TO THE FALL IN CRUDE OIL PRICE, EACH STATE SHOULD LOOK INTO OTHER AREAS OF REVENUE GENERATIONS SUCH AS AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE, MINING, TAXES, ETC. REDUCTION OF LOADED PAYROLL BY MAKING EFFORT TO AUDIT GHOST WORKERS! A PRACTICAL EXAMPLE IS THE LAGOS STATE GOVERNMENT; THE GOVERNOR HAS DEVISED SYSTEMS THAT WOULD FACILITATE GENERATION OF FUNDS TO THE STATE. OTHER STATES SHOULD FOLLOW LAGOS STATE EXAMPLE AND PLACE LESS RELIANCE ON THE FEDERATION ALLOCATION.