By Chinyere Aruogu
President of the Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote has said the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has not been particularly of help to his business during this recession contrary to insinuations at some quarters.
Dangote said the only assistnace CBN had extended to the Group was in the area of Letters of Credit (LC).
Dangote believes that in other climes people running businesses as huge as what Dangote Group is doing in Nigeria constantly get the support of government. He interacted with media chiefs in Lagos last weekend.
He said though he was not complaining, but it was necessary to bring to the fore the reason businesses do better outside our shores than they do here.
He regretted that so many people have the erroneous impression that Dangote Group gets all the forex from CBN, insinuation he said often emanate from beer joints and other merry making places.
Dangote said Nigeria does not have any reason to be deficient in food production if the leadership was getting their priorities right.
He said he was ready to continue to invest massively in the country despite the hard business environment, noting that if he does not take the bull by the horn he does not expect that an outsider would do it.
Dangote said he had gone into agriculture to ensure that Nigeria becomes self sufficient in food production, noting that in three years time – 2020 – his investment in rice production would meet the rice needs of the country.
He said the recent announcement by government that ENI would be building refinery with the capacity to refine150,000 barrels per day was laughable because the volume of business for which government wants to commit so much in several billions of dollars will still not meet the fuel needs of the people.
Dangote also decried the continued importation of dairies by Nigerians, saying milk production is one of the easiest investments to do if our leadership were serious.
According to him, there are several Nigerian billionaires with the capacity to invest and take the country out of the woods in terms of employment, but most of them prefer to leave their resources in the banks where they would be drawing interest.
Dangote said it makes no sense that the country has more than 250 private jets when the majority of the citizenry are roaming the streets begging for what to eat and drink. “If we fail to solve that problem now, time will come when they will resort to stoning us anytime they see us any where,” he said.