Agriculture Is Key To Economic Diversification – Dangote

President of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has stated that the diversification of Nigeria’s economy was long overdue and that the economy could only be rejuvenated through agriculture.

He emphasised this in a statement following Federal Government’s description of Dangote Fertilizer and Petrochemical projects as ‘credible industrial efforts capable of reducing poverty’ by generating foreign exchange.

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said that the Dangote Fertilizer and Petrochemical projects were vital to the nation’s diversification efforts and capable of building up the nation’s foreign exchange. He stated that agriculture was the way to go and that fertilizer was a critical component of the sector.

“Nigeria has more arable land than China which now is the biggest economy in the world; we can tap into our vast land and produce what we need and even export the remaining,” he said. 

“By the time we complete this project, there will be opportunity to take on agriculture and say bye to poverty, because there will be jobs, no sector has more job potential than agriculture,” he said.

Prof Osinbajo  commended the business acumen of Aliko Dangote saying the projects remained the most important in the country and must be supported, as it would help the economy in no small measure.

Dangote described the project as an ambitious one, stressing that it would give Nigeria a new economic direction in its search for diversification once completed.

He assured that the refinery would be ready in the first quarter of 2019. “ Mechanical completion will be end of 2018 but we will start producing in 2019,”he said.

Dangote said it would help the country save $5 billion spent on importation of refined products. According to him, the Refinery, Petrochemicals and fertilizer projects represent the single largest stream in the world.

“This site is the biggest in the world; the refinery is the biggest single refinery in the world, the petrochemicals is 13 times bigger than Eleme petrochemicals while the fertilizer plant will be 10 times bigger than former National Fertilizer Company,” he said.

He explained that the project with the $2 billion fertilizer unit was funded through loans, export credit agencies and owners’ equity.