I don’t Believe The Federal Government Should Continue to be Bailing out the States - Dangote

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.