Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote of Nigeria, President of the Dangote Group, attended the Edo Investment Summit in Benin City, Nigeria, last week. He chatted with newsmen on his impressions about the event. He said the summit went very well although the organizers had a short period of time to invite people to the event. The business mogul said the organizers wanted to show that the public sector was ready to partner and do business with the private sector. According to him, majority of the guests are big investors who have $500 million and above, which he said, will open up the state to job creation and enlighten people of the opportunities in Edo State. “They are here ready to do business and I think the state has a lot of advantages in terms of agriculture and agro-allied industries, which is their own oil. If they can really focus on that and harness it they will be able to do something great”.
The reporters noted that Alhaji Dangote spoke on the need for better collaboration between the public and private sectors. They asked him to assess the importance of such collaboration from his perspective.
The tycoon responded by describing the relationship as okay to a certain extent. His words, “There are a couple of different people in government. Some are pro-business and others are anti-business. The ones that are against business have never really taken a good look to see the opportunity for government, because there are taxes. People in business pay taxes. Even if they have a 3-5 year tax holiday, by the time that you start paying taxes, you end up seeing that the government makes more money than the owners of the business, including the reserves of the company. We have that case in our sugar business. The government takes more money, when you take the VAT and everything into account, the government takes 42 per cent and we take 48 per cent”.
He continued, “It is a win-win situation. Apart from that you will create a lot of jobs because it is not the duty of the government to create jobs. The government is meant to facilitate and make sure there is an enabling environment. We, the private sector, are the ones that will actually take the risks. We risk our money, risk our resources, borrow more money from the banks and now go on a trajectory. If it fails we are on our own. If it succeeds, then government comes in and shares the profits. However, the main thing is not only about money or profit making. Of course you have to make money, but the most important thing for us today as a nation is, how do we create jobs?”
Alhaji Dangote asserted, “Based on my own estimations Nigeria should be creating something like about 5 million jobs every year for us to become prosperous. The only way we can create this high number of jobs is to go and concentrate on agriculture. In my speech I said, “how many barrels of oil do you need to make up for one ton of palm oil.” A ton of palm oil can actually buy almost 8 barrels of oil and 8 barrels of oil is more difficult to get than palm oil because we have the land, we have the water, our climate is excellent, so that is what is going on”.
The reporters asked Alhaji Dangote to reflect on the calls for restructuring as well as the significance of investment summits like this one to states and their quest for development.
He declared, “When you look at things as they exist today, majority of the people who call for restructuring do not understand what restructuring is all about. And majority of the states in Nigeria are not viable. You have to run government like a business. You cannot continue to just keep running government in deficit when most states are not able to pay salaries. We have an income of N3 billion and then you have salaries and other expenses without even projects. So it means that even if you ignore capital projects and take care of only recurrent expenditure, you will always be N1 billion short.
“If you run this for 5-10 years, where in the hell are you going to get the money to pay off that debt which you are piling up? To do well, states do not need to wait for restructuring. A state like Edo should move on and concentrate on agriculture, bring prosperity to the people better than oil can. With oil you do not get the revenue, but with agriculture, the prosperity starts from the state and then it spreads to the rest of the country. This is what I think they should do. Edo can mobilise and the governor is capable. He is one of the best governors that we have in Nigeria”.
