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. (NAN)
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