Economy: Dangote commends Nigerians’ resilience

Africa’s richest man and president, Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has commended Nigerians for their resilience and doggedness even in the facing of the prevailing economic challenges.

Dangote said Nigerians have made sacrifices that would soon see nation out of the woods.

Addressing in Lagos a group of small and medium enterprises operators who met with him during the festive period, Dangote said Nigerians have demonstrated the capacity to face challenges, be undaunted and tackle them headlong.

According to him, some countries have been thrown into upheaval at the slightest economic downturn, rather than joining hands together to solve the economic problems.

He explained that what Nigeria is going through, though painful, but at the end of the day would make the nation a better self reliant economic power house.

He urged the people to continue to join hands with the government in finding lasting solution to the problems, adding that Nigeria will be the better for it.

He added that most countries in the world, which have attained economic buoyancy, have at one time in their history faced economic hardship.

Dangote said: “Thank God in our own situation, we know where the problem lies and as such we only need to muster the courage to apply solution.

“Nigeria needs to look inward and produce what we consume as opposed to incessant importation, which takes away our forex.

“This is one of the fundamental problems of our country.

“We import just anything and the reality has dawned on us now that we have to change this habit.

“This is why the Federal Government has been emphasising the need to go back to agriculture and total manufacturing so that we also can produce what we need and even export rather than import.”

Dangote said not until Nigeria becomes a producing nation and reduce import, her economy would continue to grope in the dark, noting that his company would continue to take the lead in any sector that requires the nation to look inward.

He said Nigeria has no business with importation of some products, the production of which the nation has abundant raw materials to produce.