By Adejoke Adeleye/Abeokuta
The President of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote Limited has hinted that the pan-African conglomerate is expanding its investments in almost all sectors of Nigerian economy to stop the wastage of the country’s scarce foreign exchange on importation of essential commodities and to stop capital flight.
Dangote, who was represented by Adeyemi Fajobi, National Sales Director of the company spoke at Dangote Day held at the ongoing 10th Gateway International Trade Fair jointly organised by OGUNCCIMA and Ogun State Government in Abeokuta on Thursday.
According to him, the expansion and diversification by the Dangote Group into different sectors of the economy are borne out of desire to make the country self-sufficient and independent of unnecessary imports from foreign lands.
“We are a diversified group with interests in cement, sugar, salt, poly products, real estate, agriculture, logistics, telecommunications, steel, oil and gas among others. We have three subsidiaries listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE). They include Dangote Cement Plc, Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc (DSR), and Dangote Salt which trade under the name of NASCON Allied Industries Plc.
“There is no gainsaying the fact that OGUNCCIMA is a very unique one. This is because Ogun state has one of the largest concentration of industries in Nigeria and serve as a corridor for transportation of goods, services and people between the nation’s commercial center of Lagos and the rest of Nigeria and even our neighbouring countries of Benin Republic, Togo and Ghana.
“Our continuous efforts to innovate, create value and invest in Nigeria are borne out of our firm belief in the vast economic potential of Nigeria. This has also informed our desire to invest massively in some states across the country. Our target is to ensure that Nigeria becomes self-sufficient in all the sectors where we play, cement, agriculture, mining and petroleum, etc”, he said.
Earlier, Mary Uche, a Representative of Dangote Fertilizer, declared that the conglomerate is rolling out fertilizers that would bring about high yields to farmers and improve the agricultural productivity in the country, thereby increasing agricultural contributions to the gross domestic product.
Responding on behalf of Government, Kikelomo Longe, Ogun Commissioner for Industry, Trade and Investment, said Dangote Group should be lauded for its dedicated investment in the state, saying: “Dangote is a very important brand in the state, in production and distribution of cement and other products, employment opportunities, distribution-ship benefits for our people. We are open and ready for business come and invest more here.”