Africa’s richest man, Alhaji Aliko
Dangote, has listed three major challenges facing Nigeria’s economy that the
President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari needs to tackle.
According to Dangote, Buhari needs
to make unemployment, increased power generation and corruption his top
priorities after his swearing-in on May 29.
Speaking in an interview with This
Day, Dangote pointed out that the business community in the country is set to
back Buhari’s administration.
He explained that with President
Goodluck Jonathan conceding defeat, the confidence of investors all over the
world has been boosted, adding that the business community would wax stronger
if the president-elect tackles some urgent needs of the economy.
Speaking on unemployment, Dangote
said: “It is a great and pervasive problem in Nigeria. But the point must be
made that it is not peculiarly a Nigerian problem. All over the world, there
are growing issues of unemployment. And what we are saying is that the
in-coming government can achieve a remarkable success in this regard if it
declares an emergency on unemployment and tackle it decisively. You know the
organised private sector will or should play a key role in this. And that is
why we are concerned.”
He further lamented the extent of
damage corruption has done to Nigerian economy, describing it as a “big
cankerworm that has really eaten deep into the fabric of our nation.”
“The malaise of corruption is a
threat to the survival of the Nigeria economy, no doubt. We must all therefore
rise in unison to tackle the menace both in the public and private sector of
the economy. The Buhari-led government can show a lot of strength on this issue
by showing direction, by demonstrating commitment to ridding every sector of
the economy of this malaise.
“I can tell you that a lot will change in
Nigeria if this issue is tackled decisively,”
Dangote said.
The businessman called on Buhari’s
administration to revisit the ongoing privatisation programme in the energy
sector with a view to growing the energy capacity of the country.
According to him, if there is
increased electricity output, there would be industrial growth and even the
small and medium scale businesses which are dying because of insufficient
energy supply, would begin to experience boom again.
Dangote is a Nigerian billionaire
businessman, who owns the Dangote Group, which has interests in
commodities. The company operates in Nigeria and other African countries,
including Benin, Cameroon, Ghana, South Africa, Togo and Zambia.
Dangote is rated by Forbes Magazine as the 67th richest person
in the world and the richest in Africa, with a net worth of $14.7Billion.
His major businesses span cement
production, sugar production as well as several other business concerns.
He recently got into the oil and gas
sector with a plan to build a refinery with the capacity to process 650,000
barrels per day, thus making it the single largest stream in the
world.Describing the present situation where Nigeria produces crude but goes
abroad to buy refined products as unacceptable, Dangote had explained that his
refinery was ready to reverse the trend just as it has successfully done in
other sectors like sugar and cement.
By:Nkem Ikeke
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