Joel3:
Africa’s richest man, Alhaji Aliko Dangote,
has listed three major challenges facing
Nigeria’s economy that the President-elect,
Muhammadu Buhari needs to tackle.

According to Dangote, Buhari needs to
make unemployment, increased power
generation and corruption his top priorities
after his swearing-in on May 29.
Speaking in an interview with This Day,
Dangote pointed out that the business
community in the country is set to back
Buhari’s administration.

He explained that with President Goodluck
Jonathan conceding defeat, the confidence
of investors all over the world has been
boosted, adding that the business
community would wax stronger if the
president-elect tackles some urgent needs
of the economy.

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Speaking on unemployment, Dangote said:
“ It is a great and pervasive problem in
Nigeria. But the point must be made that it is
not peculiarly a Nigerian problem. All over the
world, there are growing issues of
unemployment. And what we are saying is that
the in-coming government can achieve a
remarkable success in this regard if it
declares an emergency on unemployment and
tackle it decisively. You know the organised
private sector will or should play a key role in
this. And that is why we are concerned .”

He further lamented the extent of damage
corruption has done to Nigerian economy,
describing it as a “big cankerworm that has
really eaten deep into the fabric of our
nation.”

“ The malaise of corruption is a threat to the
survival of the Nigeria economy, no doubt. We
must all therefore rise in unison to tackle the
menace both in the public and private sector
of the economy. The Buhari-led government
can show a lot of strength on this issue by
showing direction, by demonstrating
commitment to ridding every sector of the
economy of this malaise.

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“I can tell you that a lot will change in Nigeria
if this issue is tackled decisively ,” Dangote
said.

The businessman called on Buhari’s
administration to revisit the ongoing
privatisation programme in the energy
sector with a view to growing the energy
capacity of the country.

According to him, if there is increased
electricity output, there would be industrial
growth and even the small and medium
scale businesses which are dying because
of insufficient energy supply, would begin
to experience boom again.

Dangote is a Nigerian billionaire
businessman , who owns the Dangote
Group, which has interests in commodities.
The company operates in Nigeria and other
African countries, including Benin,
Cameroon, Ghana, South Africa, Togo and
Zambia.j
Dangote is rated by Forbes Magazine as
the 67th richest person in the world and
the richest in Africa, with a net worth of
$14.7Billion.

His major businesses span cement
production, sugar production as well as
several other business concerns.
He recently got into the oil and gas sector
with a plan to build a refinery with the
capacity to process 650,000 barrels per
day, thus making it the single largest
stream in the world.Describing the present
situation where Nigeria produces crude but
goes abroad to buy refined products as
unacceptable, Dangote had explained that
his refinery was ready to reverse the trend
just as it has successfully done in other
sectors like sugar and cement.