Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, said on Wednesday that the over N1.3trillion generated by the Nigerian Customs Service in 2019 simply shows how distorted the Nigerian economy has been, even as he urged government to get serious and stop lip service to the much-talked about economic diversification.
He said such huge incomes from import duties alone also show how much Nigeria is losing in importing most commodities that can be produced locally and should not, in earnest be celebrated as a feat.
“My heart actually bled when I heard that customs generated N1.35 trillion as import duties in 2019.
“It means that the economy is not working,” he said.
“If the economy is working, customs should not collect that much money.
“We really need to diversity and make sure that we have manufacturing base,” he noted, speaking at consultative roundtable with the Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele themed ‘Going for Growth’ holding in Abuja.
“We need to ensure this happens before it becomes impossible even if we have the money,” he stated.
Using his Cement company as an example, he imagined that the congestions of the port, if they were to import 27 million of cement that we consume in Nigeria, this cannot be possible.
“But today, we have built terminals to export cement and I can assure you that by this year, Nigeria will be the highest exporter of cement in Africa.
So it is possible,” he stated.
He noted that with the low oil the price, it is imperative that the Nigerian economy is diversified, stressing, “in fact we are late, and we have been paying lips to this.”
“And it can only happen through agriculture and manufacturing which create a lot of jobs, middle class, and also transform countries.
“We really need to focus on these areas.”
He said for the country to achieve this, there is need to embark massively on backward integration or import substitution and that considering Nigeria’s huge domestic market, imports last year at almost $47bn is just unacceptable.
Dangote is of the opinion that the structure of the Nigerian economy today is not sustainable for a population of 200 million people coupled with a population growth rate of about 2.7 percent which imports most of what it consumes.
“We really need to be more serious this time around, so that we don’t keep paying lip service,” he re-emphasized.
He said the roundtable and the calibre of participants present opportunities to galvanize solutions to rework the economy from less dependence on oil.
He cited example with his business where they have to import almost all the needed inputs.
He urged more people to delve into manufacturing and urged government to provide the enabling environment.
“We need to reduce cost of doing business. Government has lost so much money in the Apapa lock jam. In fact three companies lost over N30bn in terms of profit.
“We need to look at infrastructure, power because that is what will propel the SMEs.
He basically recommended three things for efficient diversification to happen, including low interest rate, long-term funds, and support by the Central Bank of Nigeria in terms of making foreign exchange available for people to import plant and machinery.
Citing Ethiopia as an example, Dangote advised the CBN to now focus on giving more foreign exchange access to those importing plants and machinery rather than for consumption.
He said going forward and leveraging CBN support, Dangote is building 10 plants of rice, which by end of the year, they will be able to produce 1million tones of rice.
Speaking on the much awaited Dangote refinery, he said Nigeria will become the largest exporter of petroleum products in Africa by the time it is completed early next year.
He also announced that for the first time, Nigeria will, this year become the largest exporter of fertilizer in Sub-Saharan Africa.
“All this has been possible by backward integration,” he stressed.
“We will be the largest second exporter of petroleum products, including polypropylene, polyethylene.
“It is possible but we need government consistency in its policies. All the support will not be possible if foreign exchange is not available for people to buy machinery and set up factories rather than importing for consumption,” he further noted.
