Post by anansi on Oct 25, 2018 6:00:42 GMT -5
What Africa's Richest Man Thinks Would Make Africa Rich.
With hundreds of multi-hued cranes and stacked shipping containers, the construction site rises from the swamps east of Lagos like a Technicolor hallucination. It is Nigeria’s latest hope for transforming its stagnant economy: a $10.5 billion oil refinery that will be Africa’s biggest, able to produce 650,000 barrels a day. When the pumps roar to life in 2020, they could make Nigeria—a net importer of fuel, despite copious crude-oil reserves—self-sufficient in petroleum products.
That’s only the beginning. Once the refinery is operational, industry analysts say Nigeria could become Africa’s biggest producer of refined petroleum and gas products, ranging from plastics to fertilizer, as well as jet fuel, diesel and gasoline. That would create a variety of new industries, potentially lifting the economy of the entire region for decades to come.
How Dangote succeeded where others failed involves a President, protectionism and a piece of company apocrypha. When in 1999 Nigeria’s recently elected pro-business President Olusegun Obasanjo asked him why Nigeria imported so much cement when it had all the raw ingredients to produce it at home, Dangote is said to have told him that it would stay that way as long as it was more profitable to import than to produce. So Obasanjo reversed the imbalance by giving preferential treatment to domestic producers. Dangote was one of the first to profit, and today, Dangote Cement is on the verge of being the largest exporter of the construction material in Africa.
That Dangote has built a fortune by securing virtual monopolies on the production of vital goods, like cement, with government assistance in the form of tax exemptions and protection from international competitors is not lost on his detractors. But Dangote has long said that old-fashioned protectionism is the only way to build Africa’s industries. “How many jobs can you create if you are now going to produce 5 million tons of wheat instead of importing it?” he asks. It is up to the government to protect local industries, he adds. “Incentives are what drive an entrepreneur to risk his capital.”
Protectionism has historically been considered a dirty word in Africa, where manufacturing exports protected by free-trade treaties have boosted foreign exchange. Now, governments and investors are beginning to see domestic manufacturing as vital for creating jobs.
amp.timeinc.net/time/5432947/aliko-dangote-richest-man-africa#referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&_tf=From%20%251%24s
Pls klik the link for the article.
Now this is whats needed, I hope other native industrialist and govt heads are taking notes, I don't know if it's a good idea for him to be in the Presidential seat but, I think he's a good problem solver.
With hundreds of multi-hued cranes and stacked shipping containers, the construction site rises from the swamps east of Lagos like a Technicolor hallucination. It is Nigeria’s latest hope for transforming its stagnant economy: a $10.5 billion oil refinery that will be Africa’s biggest, able to produce 650,000 barrels a day. When the pumps roar to life in 2020, they could make Nigeria—a net importer of fuel, despite copious crude-oil reserves—self-sufficient in petroleum products.
That’s only the beginning. Once the refinery is operational, industry analysts say Nigeria could become Africa’s biggest producer of refined petroleum and gas products, ranging from plastics to fertilizer, as well as jet fuel, diesel and gasoline. That would create a variety of new industries, potentially lifting the economy of the entire region for decades to come.
How Dangote succeeded where others failed involves a President, protectionism and a piece of company apocrypha. When in 1999 Nigeria’s recently elected pro-business President Olusegun Obasanjo asked him why Nigeria imported so much cement when it had all the raw ingredients to produce it at home, Dangote is said to have told him that it would stay that way as long as it was more profitable to import than to produce. So Obasanjo reversed the imbalance by giving preferential treatment to domestic producers. Dangote was one of the first to profit, and today, Dangote Cement is on the verge of being the largest exporter of the construction material in Africa.
That Dangote has built a fortune by securing virtual monopolies on the production of vital goods, like cement, with government assistance in the form of tax exemptions and protection from international competitors is not lost on his detractors. But Dangote has long said that old-fashioned protectionism is the only way to build Africa’s industries. “How many jobs can you create if you are now going to produce 5 million tons of wheat instead of importing it?” he asks. It is up to the government to protect local industries, he adds. “Incentives are what drive an entrepreneur to risk his capital.”
Protectionism has historically been considered a dirty word in Africa, where manufacturing exports protected by free-trade treaties have boosted foreign exchange. Now, governments and investors are beginning to see domestic manufacturing as vital for creating jobs.
amp.timeinc.net/time/5432947/aliko-dangote-richest-man-africa#referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&_tf=From%20%251%24s
Pls klik the link for the article.
Now this is whats needed, I hope other native industrialist and govt heads are taking notes, I don't know if it's a good idea for him to be in the Presidential seat but, I think he's a good problem solver.
