The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Dangote

  • Dangote to invest $700m in sugar, rice

    Dangote to invest $700m in sugar, rice

    THE Dangote Group of Companies is to establish sugar and rice production factories worth $700million.

    Making this known during a courtesy visit to Kebbi State Governor, the President of Dangote Conglomerates, Alhaji Aliko Dangote said the two factories, which are scheduled to take off simultaneously before the end of the year, would create over 75,000 jobs for people of the state and beyond.

    The factory, he said, would also produce animal feeds from the waste of sugar cane and rice residues that would be beneficial to cattle and other animals rearers.

    The Group President also said 150 Mega Watts of electricity would be generated for the factories, which would benefit the state and others.

    The sugar factory, when completed, would create 55,000 jobs while the rice factory will create additional 20,000 jobs for unemployed Nigerians.

    ‘’ What motivated our coming to Kebbi is that we have identified available vast fertile land in Koko Besse, Bagudo And Shanga local governments areas of the state,’’ he said.

  • Dangote for Independence anniversary lecture

    Policy makers, captains of industry, members of the international community and other stakeholders will deliberate on the evolution and development of the private sector in the last 100 years at an Independence Anniversary Lecture being organised by the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI).

    President of Dangote Group , Alhaji Aliko Dangote, will deliver an address on the Perspective of the Past Century and Prognosis for the Future. The event is scheduled for Thursday, October 3 at the Eko Hotel and Suites in Victoria Island, Lagos.

    Nigeria will on October 1 celebrate 53 years of Independence. It is also on the threshold of marking 100 years of the amalgamation of the North and South Protectorates.

    LCCI is one of the few institutions that preceded the 1914 Amalgamation, having been established in 1888. It is the premier Chamber of Commerce in West Africa which, among others, was set up to advocate a conducive business environment for its members in particular and businesses in general.

  • Dangote sets tone for Africa’s industrial bloc

    Dangote sets tone for Africa’s industrial bloc

    Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote has set the tone for a stronger and highly competitive industrial bloc in Africa, Harvard Business School (HBS), said in a report.

    In the report, entitled: ‘ Nigeria’s Big Gamble on One Indigenous Entrepreneur,’ and carried out by two of its Professors, Tarun Khanna and Krishna Palepu, it said Dangote has the potentials to rivaling Samsung, a conglomerate which has become a driving force in Korean’s economy.

    The report said: “Samsung started off as a trading company, evolved to textiles and food processing, and then on to high-value added manufacturing. Today their business spans electronics, shipbuilding, construction and aerospace, among many other industries.

    Samsung’s story is a microcosm of the Korean growth miracle. Similarly Dangote’s business, which has already transformed from a trading company to a manufacturer of cement and flour, could now be moving into a new phase of higher value-added products. This step into more complex “jobs”, may also draw other African conglomerates into the mix, and create a platform for rapid industrialization.

    It said Dangote, being an insider with political connections at the highest level, is better positioned to directly fill the market’s voids and deal with the political risks which many foreign companies with interest in Nigeria cannot do.

    According to the report, Chinese investors’ success in countries such as Angola and Sudan cannot be translated to Nigeria because they do not understand the complex mix of political dynamism in Nigeria.

  • Beware Dangote they said it couldn’t be done

    For more than three decades, the sad tale had been that it could not be done. Refineries and petrochemical industries are not viable under the current petrol price regime in Nigeria; no investor would build refineries unless the prices of petroleum products are raised to high heavens. But the more they increase the prices, the more they needed to increase it still. They became like a man suffused with brine who could not stop taking water.

    Successive federal governments in cahoots with the petroleum ministry, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and fuel import contractors had perfected this fraudulent fiscal regime and economic crime of shipping off Nigeria’s crude oil and importing at premium, refined products. For decades, they had perfected what is probably the greatest fraud in modern day economics. Not even the national protests in January, 2012 which shook the government to its foundations would make them have a rethink. A change of mind seems impossible under the current ruling party regime because petroleum products importation is the most viable source of huge slush funds.

    President Goodluck Jonathan and his oil minister, Dieziani Alison-Madueke would first build Noah’s Ark before they would contemplate a refinery in Nigeria. In the afterglow of the January 2012 upheavals over another thoughtless fuel price hike, the Federal Government had promised to build what it fancifully called six modular refinery plants (it called another one Greenfields refinery plant) at the cost of $4.5 billion and which were to be operational in 18 months. An MoU was signed with so much fanfare between the so-called American sponsors and the Federal Government. The first ones were to have started operation last month but as you read this dear readers, Hardball can confirm to you that no such has been turned anywhere in the country for this project. It is all a scam, apparently.

    Another case to prove that Federal Government is Nigeria’s number one enemy is the Olokola LNG project (OKLNG). This project company was formed in 2007 by NNPC, British Gas, Shell and Chevron to build a giant facility where natural gas would be converted to Liquefied Natural Gas for export. But eight years after, all the joint venture partners were so thoroughly frustrated they had to withdraw because NNPC deliberately delayed the final investment decision, thus killing a project that would have amounted to Nigeria, more foreign earnings, more value added to flared gas, and more jobs for our teeming youths. The decadent and near-moribund situation of Nigeria’s oil industry suits the kleptocrats managing it fine. They will never grow it.

    This is why we sound this caveat to Africa’s richest man and industrialist, Aliko Dangote, as he vigorously exhausts himself in the attempt to build a $9 billion petrochemical complex in Nigeria in the next two years. Dangote plans to establish the largest refinery in Africa which will virtually end the fraudulent importation of PMS, diesel, aviation fuel, kerosene, etc into the country. This will also mean causing the winding down of the offshore refineries built by unpatriotic and wayward Nigerians; stopping round-tripping of Nigeria’s crude, eliminating a high powered syndicate of fuel smugglers and of course killing the importation racketeers.

    Hardball thinks Dangote will have to exterminate so many people in government and as well as the oil industry cabal, including the International Oil Companies who have also insisted that refining is not profitable in Nigeria, in order to have his way with his oil complex. In other words, Hardball is saying that unless Dangote has thought about all these, heaven and earth may pass away first before another refinery is built in Nigeria.

  • Success of Dangote’s $9b refinery depends on govt, say operators

    The latest attempt by Dangote Group to build Africa’s largest refinery in Nigeria when investors, both foreign and local, have kept a far distance from investing in the downstream sector, could be light at the end of the tunnel, operators have said.

    The investment, worth $9billion, comprises a 400,000 barrel per day oil refining capacity and a fertiliser plant. The project is being financed by a consortium of local and foreign banks.

    Of interest in the project, is that the refinery is coming against the backdrop of failed efforts by the government to encourage private sector participation in the establishment and management of private refineries.

    For example, in 2002, the government issued 12 operational licences to firms to build private refineries. Since then, not one of them was able to convert or utilise them until they were revoked five years later.

    Many reasons were advanced for the failure. They ranged from poor pricing of petroleum products, lack of interest in bank funds, and increased restiveness in the Niger Delta, the oil rich region, among others.

    Besides the challenges that stalled the take-off of these licensed refineries and other three greenfield ones proposed by the government, the state of the four refineries, in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna, owned by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), have not elicited any hope to would-be investors in the sector.

    The immediate past NNPC Group Managing Director, Austin Oniwon, said running private refineries was not feasible.

    Oniwon, who spoke with reporters after he delivered a paper as Guest Speaker at the pre-convocation ceremony of the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, said the cost of running a private refinery is so enormous for a businessman to survive.

    He urged those calling for the establishment of private refineries before the removal of oil subsidy to do a rethink, saying it was only the government that could withstand the financial rigour of the project.

    He said where you control a price of petroleum products to a point that is below the cost of manufacturing, only the government can really invest in such sector because it alone can bear the loss.

    He said: “Anybody you tell to go and pay for crude oil at international price and earn below the international price for the product he is going to bring, will not do it.

    “That is why private refinery licences are stalled. But once we have the courage to deregulate the sector, you will be surprised. The upstream was deregulated. In fact, nobody ever regulated the upstream and you can see how many people are there. The telecoms was deregulated, you see how many people are playing there.”

    Oniwon’s argument for the deregulation of the downstream petroleum sector, may have spured Dangote into this gigantic project.

    One of the major marketers told The Nation that one of two factors must be in place to make the $9 billion Dangote planned refinery to be viable, adding it is either that the government deregulates the sector before the refinery begins operation, or that it would put stringent measures in place to regulate importation of petroleum products.

    He said access to foreign exchange is paramount, in addition to the government giving the company waivers in crude supply.

    The marketer said: “Businessmen are not Father Christmas. They invest to make profits. Maybe Dangote has done all the arithmetic and has been assured by the government that prices will be deregulated before the refinery begins operation. So, he is sure that he will cover all his cost and make reasonable margin.

    “The second factor is that the government might have assured him that he will be given concession for crude supply at prices lower than what obtains at the international market. You know that the government doesn’t give waivers, but in Dangote’s case, it is different. Even if the government deregulates the petroleum marketing sector, it (government) will make it impossible for people to bring products to save the refinery. The government may direct the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) not to give forex to importers just to ensure that the investment is protected.

    “In the absence of these factors, I don’t see the viability of the project because there is no way he can sell gasoline (petrol) at N97 per litre and the business surviving.”

    On supply of crude oil to the refinery, NNPC Group Executive Director, Exploration and Production, Abiye Membere, assured that the corporation will give uninterrupted supply of crude to the refinery, barring any acts of vandalism of pipelines that convey the crude there.

    He told The Nation that the steady supply of crude applies to any investor that builds a refinery in the country, but however noted that it may not be possible to sell crude to the refinery at a reduced price.

    He said even the NNPC buys its crude at international price, insisting that the government would sell crude to the refinery at international price.

    However, President Goodluck Jonathan has assured that the Dangote Group will not find the government wanting in this endeavour.

    Jonathan, who spoke while receiving the President of the Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, who led other investors and bankers to the Presidential Villa, Abuja, moments after the $3.3 loan agreement was signed, said his administration was committed to removing major impediments to investments in the country, such as inadequate infrastructure and unsteady power supply.

    “We are pleased that you are now investing in refining, petro-chemicals and fertiliser production. It is the downstream sector of oil and gas that can really create many jobs. Your interest and investment in that area will help in the area of job creation which we have been emphasising. You are also helping us to move away from being a mere producer of raw materials by adding value to our natural resources.” he told Dangote and members of his delegation.

    Dangote has acknowledged government’s support in the phenomenal growth of his Group. He said government’s policies have helped “us greatly.” “Without them, we will not be where we are today. We have taken the challenge and we will replicate the successes recorded in the cement industry through the backward integration in petroleum refining,” adding that the refining, petro-chemicals and fertiliser complex will make Nigeria a net exporter of petroleum products.

     

  • Dangote plans N64 billion cement investment in Kenya

    Dangote plans N64 billion cement investment in Kenya

    The Dangote Group has promised to invest $400 million (about N64 billion) in cement production in Kenya in the next two years.

    This was disclosed yesterday by the Chairman of the Group, Aliko Dangote, during a Nigeria-Kenya Business Forum held in Nairobi.

    The forum, which was jointly presided over by President Goodluck Jonathan and his counterpart from Kenya, President Uhuru Kenyatta, was attended by more than 500 investors from Nigeria and Kenya.

    It was part of the activities lined up for the second day of official visit of President Jonathan to Kenya.

    Dangote, who served as the chairman of the dialogue group, said that the forum underscored the need for Africa to look inward in partnership in trade and investments.

    He said the forum decried the situation where intra-trade in the continent is below 12 per cent and decided to use the Nigeria-Kenya initiative as model in Africa.

    Dangote thanked Presidents Jonathan and Kenyatta for creating the window of opportunity for the business community to interact on way to improve trade between both countries.

    According to him, Kenya would assist Nigeria in boosting sectors where it has comparative advantages such as tourism and hospitality, horticulture, dairy, sugar and ICT while Nigeria would assist Kenya in the oil and gas sector, movie and entertainment industry, agriculture and banking sectors.

    President Kenyatta announced at the forum that there will be five to ten years visa duration for Nigerian business men coming to Kenya.

    Stressing that the policy would ease the challenges of visa procurement and encourage investors from Nigeria to Kenya, he said that he was taking cue from President Jonathan who had already approved the policy in Nigeria.

    It was also disclosed that a leading Indian textile manufacturing company, Bei Textile Ltd, intends to invest in textile and garment in Nigeria.

    A Memorandum of Understanding was signed at the forum to strengthen the already existing Nigeria-Kenya Chamber for Commerce and Industry.

    Presidents Jonathan and Kenyatta assured the forum of the political will of their respective administration to support the initiative.

  • Dangote attributes success to Jonathan’s ‘favourable’ policies

    Dangote attributes success to Jonathan’s ‘favourable’ policies

    Business mogul, Aliko Dangote, on Thursday said his achievements as Africa’s richest man and 25th richest person on earth was due to the favourable policies of President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration.

    Dangote spoke on Thursday night in Nairobi when President Jonathan met with the Nigerian community in the East African country.

    The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the meeting was part of the activities lined-up for the three-day visit of President Jonathan to Kenya which began Thursday.

    Dangote, who was on the President’s entourage told the gathering that Jonathan had done a lot to improve business climate in Nigeria.

    He said, “I want to tell you what the President has been doing in Nigeria. He is very humble and may not want to sing about what he has been doing.

    “I will tell you what he has been doing to Nigerians and to some of us who are in business in Nigeria.

    “We are very grateful for some of the policies he has introduced.

    “As you all know, without the good policies of government, there is no way a person like me from the big town like Kano can rise from a humble beginning to become the 25th richest person on earth.

    “Without the policies of Mr. President and also making sure that yes, there is consistency in the policies of government this could not have happened.

    “If Government has bad policies, the whole economy will crumble, and if they have good policies people will be able to prosper, and that is what it is happening now.”

    Dangote also attributed his success story to the reforms carried out by the Federal Government in the banking sector.

     

  • Burning desire; Ajayi O; ‘Yililo’; Checkpoint; Railway; Petrol well; Galaxy S4 Ad; Dangote Refinery

    Why is Nigeria’s political leadership, so devilishly nasty when there are simple solutions to the suffering and ‘belt tightening’? These solutions are available and demonstrated by a few credit-worthy leaders. The Nigerian citizen has received since independence ‘dividends of a desperate democracy and malicious military intervention’ amounting to N1 in every N100 available. This is why most of Nigeria is still in the 19th century in water, health et cetera.

    Where is the burning desire to serve? We know about the burning desire to steal Nigeria blind. But if the politicians, officials and civil servants had a burning desire to serve for just one year 2013-2014 as an ‘Amalgamation Centenary Gift’ would Nigeria’s naira be toilet paper? There is a saying that your funeral will not be judged by how many family and associates who attend but by how many strangers attend because you improved their lives. Where is the burning desire to serve? The good are too few to make a difference to the wretched lives of the nation’s citizens whose lives are further endangered through murder by police, note late murdered Ajayi Oladokun of Ikorodu.

    Have you heard of Mr Gregory Muonyililo reportedly ‘arrested’ for filming checkpoint police? Greg has the right, like tourists, to film on the open streets. It is only when all, tourist and citizen, brandish cell phones and record corruption and intimidation that the ‘uniform’ will respect human rights. Such secret recording can be called ‘To Greg it’ or to ‘yililo’ it. Mr Muonyililo has a burning desire to serve and deserves MON. Where is the burning desire to serve in you?

    To great national applause, IGP Abubakar banned checkpoints but they are back. Sadly nothing good lasts in Nigeria. Checkpoints are back with a vengeance including a near permanent checkpoint in Ibadan at Bodija SS Peter and Paul even on Sundays. Is this one legal?

    We sympathise with the Police for the death of four police during the Ozehkome Affair and others on active duty. No amount of money will bring the murdered police men back alive to their bereaved wives and children. We are all equal before God, escort and escorted! The killing of security and escorts is callous when we are not at war with each other.

    The NSCDC’s arrest of people with a petrol-contaminated well in their compound is odd as it is clear that the matter had been reported to both the police and the NNPC before the NSCDC intervened.  The man in charge, interviewed on Channels TV, who alleged reporter ‘bias’ needs to be disciplined. His comments should go viral like ‘the oga at the top’. NSCDC must, if found wrong, pay compensation for defamation and wrongful arrest. There is no landlord or tenant with children who will dig a well to bring petrol or live near a well highly with petrol. I expected NSCDC to be more worried about prevention of catastrophe, like the Jesse explosion, than ‘playing to the gallery’ arrests. A uniform and a few laws do not make one God but make one seek to serve better. Or did the NSCDC suspect the DPO and NNPC of collusion with the landlord? How long ago was the well dug? When was petrol first smelt or drawn? Has anyone been identified drawing water from the well and distilling the petrol for profit or use? The answers to these simple questions will confirm or exclude criminal intent.

    Attention: Advertising Commission. The Samsung Galaxy S4 advert humiliating an individual who stammers must be shut down as an insult. Stammering is not joke, but a socio-medical issue and should not be trivialised for public ridicule.

    So at last the Northern elite have approved railways for Nigeria. As those same elite destroyed the railways 40 years ago, and kept the railway suppressed in favour of trailers, tankers. Ask Buhari and Babangida about Jakande Rail if you have forgotten. For the trailer business to thrive nationwide, the Northern elite instituted a national policy that the railways had to die. In fact rather than develop Apapa Port already fed by railway into a giant international port, government decided to move the new development to Tin Can Island which was only to be fed by road and trailers and not by railways thus guaranteeing trailer livelihood and Nigerian transport downfall for 50 years. Anyone used to Apapa Tin Can Island road will know the 4-10 hours delays and havoc caused by trailers for 40 years. This is the legacy of the anti-railway policy of federal governments for 40 years. It is such a pity that the same people who destroyed the railways are now using rejuvenated railways as dividends of democracy for electioneering. Nigerians should know that Nigeria’s Lagos port faced de-listing from international ports for not having ‘Railway Evacuation of Containers’.

    Who will accept responsibility for the 40 years of suffering? We need 100kph trains.

    Dangote is setting up a refinery in Nigeria and needs 400,000bpd. Remember that all the other private refinery attempts died because Nigeria refused to guarantee them the required 20-100,00bpd/ refinery. Obviously Dangote has got his guarantee. Will most of the 100 fractionated products be exported or made available locally? Dangote’s track record in flour, cement had sugar have led to outrageous price increases overburdening the masses, so what hope have we for costs of fuel and by-products of the Dangote Refinery?

     

  • Dangote, NIOB to tackle building collapse

    DANGOTE Cement Plc and the Nigerian Institute of Building (NIOB) have agreed to partner to stem the menace of building collapse.

    They said they would probe the incidence to ascertain its causes.

    NIOB Chairman, Musa Yakubu, who spoke in Abuja at the 43rd Builders Conference/Annual General Meeting (AGM), said the cement giant agreed to assist and collaborate so as to solve the problem.

    He said: “We are very happy that the Dangote Cement is here because they are very central to the industry. We are collaborating with Dangote Cement in such a way that we can tap directly from them. As end users, we want Dangote Cement to deal with us directly.”

    Dangote Cement’s Regional Manager, Marketing Services, Johnson Olaniyi, described the conference with the theme, Transformation of the building industry: Possibilities and realities, as timely, given the ugly developments in the industry.

    He said Dangote has simplified the system of cement distribution to make the product available and affordable, adding that the menace of collapsed building continues because ‘’load bearing components are not properly used in accordance with specification’’.

    Johnson said the incidence of building collapse is of concern to Dangote Cement, adding that the firm would partner with like minds to reduce the occurrence. “Over the years, Dangote has been partnering with stakeholders on how best to make use of the product. We have given out tools and various equipment to aid their operations.

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Dangote seeks more support for the Private Sector

    Dangote seeks more support for the Private Sector

    The President/CEO of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, said he decided to venture into the construction of a refinery and fertiliser plant as part of his contributions  to reducing unemployment in the country. Dangote stated this in Lagos while addressing members of a business group which paid him a visit.

    He said the task of growing the nation’s economy rests more on the private sector and urged  other investors to lend the government a helping hand in this direction. He said: “The responsibility of government is more of providing the enabling environment through the right policies and infrastructure provisions for the private sector to thrive.”

    He commended the current administration for focusing on issues that would help the private sector perform optimally as enshrined in the Transformation Agenda of President Goodluck Jonathan, Dangote  said no government can succeed without the input of the private sector.

    He  also praised the Federal Government for listening to the private sector and intervening in some critical areas of attention such as the backward integration policy which started with the cement sector and now being extended to agriculture.

    “Nigeria has the resources and the market for any company to survive. I have always said it that Nigeria is a good place to invest. We have all in abundance. God has blessed this country,” he said.

    Expressing optimism in Nigeria’s economic revival through the private sector, he said the current challenges facing the country will soon be a thing of the past.

    The Dangote Group, he promised, will invest more in Nigeria and create more jobs.