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| Aliko Dangote |
Aliko Dangote President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote has projected a turnover of $30 billion for his businesses in the next two years. He said though the company’s annual turnover is about $4 billion now, but with the completion and running of the refinery, fertilizer, petrochemicals and other businesses, the company’s turnover should be in the region of $30 billion in the next two years. Speaking with select media last week, Dangote also lauded the federal government’s efforts in the agricultural sector. He said the government’s serious focus on the sector will boost the GDP and also mean less reliance on the oil sector for growth and development.
He said: “We have massive arable land, we have water, we have the right climate, so the population growth does not really make me nervous… So, I think the government is doing very well by focusing more on the agricultural sector…we just have to tilt towards Agriculture and manufacturing as against our oil reliant economy” He also praised the government’s drive in getting more revenue from taxes, noting that the restructuring of the nation’s tax system will generate more revenue for the government.
According to him “60 per cent of the government revenue is coming from oil but the government is doing quite a lot to diversify the economy by even trying to restructure the tax system because we need to make more money from taxes because as it is now, the taxes generation in Nigeria is a bit low but the government is on the right track with these innovations” While expressing optimism that Nigeria will be certified a polio free nation by April, he lauded the collaboration between Aliko Dangote Foundation and Bill and Melinda Gates foundation on polio eradication in the country. He said: “…We have done quite a lot. The progress has been very tremendous in the last three years, we haven’t really had any wild virus of polio and by April, we will be certified to be polio free country, which means the entire, African continent will be polio free.” It would be recalled that Dangote, was recently said to be $4.3 billion richer in 2019 with his business investments in cement, flour and sugar. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the 62-year-old businessman ended the year with a net worth of almost $15 billion, making him the 96th wealthiest man in the world at the end of 2019. Dangote holds significant stake in Dangote Cement, Dangote Sugar, Nascon Allied Industries, Dangote Flour Mills among many others. Dangote incorporated his own business selling cement at 21 and begun cement manufacturing in the 1990s. He has a crude oil refinery currently valued at $12 billion oil refinery under construction. The refinery, which would be single largest in the world upon completion, has the capacity to meet more than Nigeria’s entire fuel consumption.