Africa’s heavy dependence on gas imports has turned the continent right into a dumping floor for substandard petroleum merchandise, Aliko Dangote, has mentioned.
The president of Dangote Industries Restricted and Africa’s richest artificial the remarks throughout an interview with journalists, the place he highlighted the motivation behind constructing the $19 billion Dangote Refinery.
He known as for pressing funding in Africa’s power infrastructure.
In keeping with Dangote, the refinery mission was born out of a need to make sure Nigeria’s self-sufficiency in refined petroleum merchandise and encourage comparable initiatives throughout the continent.
He mentioned the present state of affairs is unacceptable, contemplating Africa’s huge crude oil reserves.
“Aside from Algeria and Libya, that are self-sufficient, just about each different African nation is an importer,” including that “Africa has no enterprise importing gas. We’ve got oil, however we have now didn’t refine it.”
He lamented that the shortage of refining capability has created area for the influx of poor-quality merchandise that undermine well being and environmental requirements.
Dangote acknowledged the daunting challenges confronted in the course of the development of the refinery, noting that many doubted the group’s capability to execute a mission of such scale.
“If I had identified the size of challenges we might face, I would not have began in any respect,” he mentioned. “However we believed nothing is unattainable.”
He pressured that the success of the refinery ought to function a rallying level for African governments and buyers to embrace large-scale, transformative tasks that sort out urgent socio-economic issues.
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Dangote additionally known as on rich Nigerians to put money into the nation, warning that actual improvement can not happen with out robust native investments.
“No nation develops with out important investments. I attraction to all rich Nigerians to look inward and make investments right here, in Nigeria, for the way forward for our unborn youngsters”, he said.
The billionaire industrialist criticised the development of exporting capital overseas, arguing that such practices drain native economies.
“There may be hardly any nation with out corruption, he famous, emphasizing that the distinction is that, in these international locations, stolen or earned wealth is commonly reinvested at house to develop the economic system.”
He mentioned Africa should now give attention to self-reliance, worth addition, and sustainable improvement to fulfill the wants of its quickly rising inhabitants.
