President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote has assured that there will be
\nlight at the end of the tunnel with efforts being made by the federal
\ngovernment to develop other sectors of the economy long neglected in
\nfavour of oil.<\/p>\n
The business mogul who was speaking with memebers of business group\u00a0 who
\npaid him a visit in the spirit of the eid-fitri said that the situation
\nthe nation was passing through was as a result of years of over
\ndependence on oil to the detriment of other sectors and that with the
\ncrash of the oil price in the international market the nation’s receipt
\nalso crashed leading to the paucity of funds.<\/p>\n
He said however, the nation would come out strongly from the economic
\nquagmire given the present government’s diversification moves which will
\nnot only reposition the country as a producing nation but also with many
\nsources of revenue which on the long run will impact on the people
\npositively.<\/p>\n
Dangote however cautioned that the turn around could not be automatic
\nsaying, “it will take time, but surely better life will come. We just
\nhave to be patient and do our own bit because government alone cannot do
\nit.”<\/p>\n
According to him, the current reality prevailing in the international oil
\nmarket provides the best opportunity for the nation to diversify the
\neconomy, leveraging on the agriculture sector. He also advised the state
\ngovernors to take advantage just as the federal government has commenced
\nprocess of diversification at the national level<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe this is the best period in the history of our country to
\nactually diversify our economy, rather than seeing the current happenings
\nfrom a negative perspective<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was under this same kind of situation that countries like Brazil,
\ntransformed their economies, and today they have become one of the
\nleading economies in the world.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are luck that the glut we are talking about only affects the oil
\nsector, and does not affect commodities which we have the capacity to
\nexport in the agriculture sector\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n
Dangote stated that the northern part of the country, posses vast
\npotentials in the field of agriculture, state governments in the region
\nmust put more practical efforts to transform the sector. China which is
\nthe biggest economy today cannot boast of arable land that Nigeria has.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlso in the south, we have good soil that produce most of the fruits we
\nimport, coacoa, palm oil, are before now our mainstay in the South. What
\nwe need is for the government at all levels to make maximum use of the
\navailable resources to address the issue of poverty, and particularly,
\nthe high level of unemployment, they must put in place policies that can
\nattract investors within and outside the country\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n
Dangote revealed his intention to create over 200,000 new jobs through
\nsome of his investments in the agric sector in the northern part of the
\ncountry between now and 2018.<\/p>\n
According to him, the Dangote Group has commenced the production of rice
\nin Jigawa at competitive price, as part of the national quest to be self
\nsufficient in rice production.<\/p>\n
\u201cDangote Group is working to increase yield of rice per hectare from the
\npresent 1.4 to maximum 2 tonnes per hectare in Jigawa state.<\/p>\n
\u201c Already a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed by the
\nDangote Group to produce rice in Jigawa on a rice value chain,\u00a0 from
\nplanting to retaining, the company will be cultivating 16,000 hectares,
\nand as well as develop an out-grower scheme using the same technology,
\nand the same arrangement to produce another 16,000 hectares\u201d he pointed
\nout.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote has assured that there will be light at the end of the tunnel with efforts being made by the federal government to develop other…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50808,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n