President, Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has predicted
Nigeria’s economic revival, stating that the current challenges the
country face, would soon be a thing of the past.
He
appealed to Nigerians to contribute their own quota - by doing what is
right and paying their taxes - in order to ensure real growth and
development.
A statement from the company on Friday quoted the
Dangote boss as saying these when a group of entrepreneurs visited him
in his office in Lagos.
He urged the citizenry not to be
discouraged by various challenges facing the nation, stating that they
were necessary steps needed for the nation to rank among the best
industrially in years to come.
He however called on both
indigenous and foreign investors to invest more in the economy, adding
that Nigeria was the best place to have good returns on investment.
He said the company would invest more in Nigeria, create more jobs as he had an unwavering faith in the nation’s economy.
Dangote,
who is a member of the National Economic Management Team, stated that
what Nigerians needed most was economic empowerment.
He explained
that economic development of the country rested more on the shoulders
of the private sector operators, while government’s strategic role was
to ensure a conducive environment by putting in place the right policies
that would encourage setting up of businesses.
Consequently, he
urged local investors to complement the Federal government’s efforts at
ensuring the success of the economic agenda by delving into
manufacturing as one of the means of empowering Nigerians through job
creation.
He promised to ensure that his investment would focus
on job creation and urged other investors to do the same, for the nation
to be among the best 20 developed countries in 2020.
The
business mogul noted that it was only through the active involvement of
the private sector that the infrastructure deficit could be tracked and
tackled by government, adding that all countries of the world whose
economies had made appreciable impact on the citizenry had done so
through manufacturing.
To buttress his position, Dangote referred
to a report published last August by the renowned Global Consulting
firm, McKinsey, on the economic potentials in Nigeria and a host of
other African countries.
He said, “The McKensey report is very
instructive, it says that half of the 30 million jobs in African
manufacturing offer wage paying employment, a higher share than most
sectors. If current projections for manufacturing value-added growth
hold, it is estimated that the sector will create eight million more
stable jobs by 2020.”
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