Yemisi Izuora
The President, Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has challenged private sector investors to support the Nigerian Government as it steps up efforts to diversify the economy.
Dangote, who lamented the over dependence of the Nigerian economy on oil, urged local and foreign businessmen to lead the task of diversifying the economy by increasing their investments in the manufacturing and agriculture sectors.
Dangote told business executives in Lagos that economic diversification was imperative if the country was to move from a monolithic economy that thrived only on oil and gas revenue.
He explained that the situation in which states governments could not pay salaries and the Federal Government was not having enough to meet its needs called for concerted efforts to boost other economic sectors like agriculture, mining and manufacturing.
“I have always said that Nigeria is a good place to invest in. God has given us in Nigeria what many other countries don’t have and they keep searching for.
“We have got fertile land for agriculture, we have the minerals resources and we have oil. All we need to do is to harness them for our good.
“The present challenges we are facing should not deter us from growing our economy. They shouldn’t stop us from investing.
It’s just a passing phase. Other countries, which we referred to as developed, started from somewhere.
“They all experienced some of these challenges in the past. So, I want us to see these challenges as obstacles towards attaining greatness,” Dangote said.
He told the business executives that the need to boost job creation was partly the reason why the conglomerate was increasing its investments across the continent.