President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote has demonstrated in many ways his confidence in Nigeria. One of the reasons for so much adulation for him from withing and outside the country is his believe that only Nigerians can develop their country. In recent times, he has committed billions of dollars in building petroleum refinery, granulated urea fertilizer plant at Ibeju-Lekki in Lagos State, which is expected to begin operations in May. These projects will retain foreign exchange for Nigeria, generate employment and income for the government. In this interview with  CHIKA IZUORA and BUKOLA IDOWU, Aliko Dangote explains more on what the projects will contribute for Nigeria’s economy, huge support the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN) is giving to investors and why more entrepreneurs should take risks by investing more in the country, taking advantage of the apex bank’s low-interest rates, thereby ensuring inclusive growth for Nigeria.

Expectation From Dangote Granulated Urea Fertilizer Plant

This project means a lot to the country in so many ways. First of all, we want to thank the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor, Godwin Emefiele, the Deputy Governors of the apex bank and the entire management team of the bank. One of the reasons they are supporting us is because eventually, we are going to help in terms of not only supporting the growth of local industries in Nigeria through this project but also in terms of reducing the outflow of foreign exchange through the importation of petroleum products, petrochemicals, fertilizers. Also, we will become one of the highest foreign exchange generating entity going forward.

You can see the level of work that we have done, it is very encouraging and through the CBN’s support, we have done a very great work in this project. That’s why we had to visit the jetty that we built and the pipeline which are bringing in the materials. I must really confess that without the government’s support, there is no way we would have done what we have done so far. I thank President Muhammadu Buhari and the CBN management.

Impact Of Adjusted Interest Rates On The Project

We sincerely commend the Central Bank of Nigeria. They are helping us in terms of bringing down interest rates, so it can encourage other entrepreneurs to go into mega projects like this one and not wait for foreign investors to come and develop our economy.

We don’t have to wait for foreigners to come and develop our economy, it will never happen. So, we have to do it ourselves and the only way to do it is by putting down ideas and money. People were complaining that we are not doing much because interest rates are high, now that interest rates are low and the banks have been forced to lend money out, entrepreneurs should come out with their seed capital and risk their own capital to borrow more money and develop our country.

What The Mega Projects Will Contribute To Nigeria’s Economy

It is going to change quite a lot; Nigeria now will become the biggest and may be the only urea exporter in sub-Saharan Africa for the first time.

We are not only exporting; we are exporting big time. Between ours and Indorama, it’s going to be almost about five million tons of Urea annually, which is huge.

Secondly, we will have polypropylene and these two products alone will bring in about two and a half-billion dollars in terms of foreign exchange.

So, you can see that a lot of efforts will now come in, that two and a half billion is almost like ten percent of what we are having from remittances by Nigerians abroad.

Number two, Nigeria will become the largest exporter of petroleum products in Africa.

Other Areas Of Support From The CBN?

Yes of course. Apart from petrochemicals,  there are other areas in which the CBN is encouraging us, not only with financial support.

Nigeria will be one of the largest exporters of cement because we are about doing 8 million tons by this year.

The CBN also asked us why we did not intervene in the rice industry because we don’t have processing.

As we speak today, we are building a million tons of rice processing and each mill out of the ten we are building has a storage capacity of 36 million tons.

So, we can store 360 thousand tons of paddy rice and also the shell of the rice which people burn will be used to generate power.

So, all these mills will be in the rural areas and not the cities because we will generate our own power and again the government is also doing the sugar backward integration.

There is quite a lot. People are complaining that there is low growth and that what we have is not inclusive growth. What do you expect the government to do? Government can only roll out policies, we as entrepreneurs must also risk our own capital and borrow the remaining from the banks. If you are not ready to risk your own money, why should the bank lend you money?