Aliko Dangote, the president and CEO of Dangote Industries Limited, has urged affluent Nigerians to make investments in the country, claiming that this is still the only way to develop the country.
He contends that without large investments, a country cannot experience true growth and progress.
He urged African entrepreneurs and wealthy people to make domestic investments, criticising the continent’s propensity to export and hide its money outside.
“We can only promote genuine development by means of such dedication,” he continued.
“No nation develops without significant investments,” Dangote stated in an interview with a few members of the media. For the sake of our unborn children’s future, I implore all affluent Nigerians to reflect on themselves and make investments here.
Almost no country is free from corruption, but the difference between this country and those in other corrupt countries is that the former invest the stolen money domestically to boost their economies, while the latter keep it in foreign banks that have no beneficial effect on the economy.
“What Africa really needs are big, transformative projects that can solve its long-standing socio-economic problems, especially the creation of jobs for its expanding population,” he said.
Regarding his choice to build the $20 billion refinery against all odds, Dangote stated that he was committed to seeing Nigeria achieve self-sufficiency in refined petroleum products and to acting as a catalyst for other African countries in spite of many obstacles and resistance.
He clarified that he started the ambitious project in order to ensure energy independence for Nigeria and the larger African continent, emphasising that despite the continent’s vast crude oil reserves, the majority of African nations aside from Libya and Algeria still mainly depended on imported refined petroleum products.
Dangote emphasised the critical need for functional refineries on the continent by stating that “almost every other African country is an importer, with the exception of Algeria and Libya, which are self-sufficient.”
He also bemoaned the fact that Africa’s over reliance on imports had turned the continent into a landfill for inferior petroleum products.
Nigeria, Algeria, Angola, Egypt, and Libya all of which are among the top 30 oil-producing countries in the world have made substantial contributions to Africa’s estimated 125 billion barrels of proved oil reserves.
