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Dangote urges FG to create more entrepreneurs

By Victor Gbonegun
10 May 2018   |   3:49 am
The President of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote yesterday urged the Federal Government to create more entrepreneurs in the country. He disclosed this at an entrepreneurial training of the Lagos Business School (LBS), which is the institute’s Owner-Manager programme. He said the move would give the Federal Government the potential to rapidly increase its revenue…

Dangote

The President of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote yesterday urged the Federal Government to create more entrepreneurs in the country.

He disclosed this at an entrepreneurial training of the Lagos Business School (LBS), which is the institute’s Owner-Manager programme.

He said the move would give the Federal Government the potential to rapidly increase its revenue from taxes.

Dangote also declared that with the company’s huge investment in the cement industry, Nigeria would be the largest cement exporter by 2019 in the entire Africa.

He explained that between 2007 and 2017, his company paid about N251billion as taxes to the government, and is also expected to pay about N1.2trillion in the next five years.

According to him, if government could create more entrepreneurs like himself, more revenue would accrue to the government purse.

Dangote told the participants to avoid businesses, which they could not really explain the processes involved from beginning to end.

He stressed that it was the model that they used, which the top 10 of them in the company could explain its process from A to Z.

He added that the challenges of businesses in Nigeria are compounded by the lack of electricity and inconsistencies in government policies.

On the cement sector, he disclosed that Nigeria has moved from import dependency to self-sufficiency, from 76 per cent in 2003 to 95per cent in 2015.

He added that it accounts for about 10per cent of Foreign Direct Investment inflows.

Dangote disclosed that more investments are ongoing to put the country on the map of the largest exporter of the product in the entire Africa by 2019.

He disclosed that the move would be the highest foreign exchange earner for Nigeria outside oil and gas.

He said the costs of logistics contribute a lot to the increase in price of cement, adding that cost would go down depending on what happens in the economy.

According to him, when the ongoing oil refinery project is completed, it would generate about $23billion annual revenue than the total budget of the Federal Government.

He said: “Its capacity per day is 650,000bpd, which is the largest single unit refinery in the world. It is 80 per cent procurement completed, and would create 60,000 direct and indirect jobs.

“It would also save an approximated $6billion of Foreign Exchange, and create further earning of $6billion from export. The project will contribute to food security and sufficiency for Nigeria.”

Also speaking, the academic director of the LBS owner-manager programme, Dr. Henrietta Onwuegbuzie explained that one of the things the school had tried to achieve is to expose participants to opportunities, broaden their minds, encourage and inspire them to great leadership.

She said Dangote has turned the country from being a net importer of cement to a net exporter of the product to 13 African countries.

Onwuegbuzie explained that they embarked on the tour of Dangote refinery and petrol chemical company to encourage the participants to do similar things in the country.

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