President and Chief Executive of the Dangote Group, Alison Dangote says President Bola Tinubu’s historic state visit to the United Kingdom is poised to unlock significant economic opportunities for Nigeria and deepen its bilateral engagements with other countries.
Dangote spoke to journalists after visiting President Tinubu at his Lagos residence on Monday, explaining that he came to extend Eid greetings, check on the President, and pay his respects.
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The leading African industrialist stated that attracting such backing underscores growing international confidence in Nigeria’s economic outlook.
“I think it has opened ways. Today, diplomacy without the economic part of it is not complete. So I believe his visit will open quite a lot of doors and you can see the agreement that was signed for actually improving our infrastructure, especially in the ports and other areas, which is almost £746 million, that’s quite a lot.
“It’s not that easy dealing with British, getting this kind of money out of them. They too, they are struggling on their own. But I think this shows confidence, it’s not about the money, it’s about the confidence in Nigeria,” Dangote said.
He noted that the development would set the pace for similar investments from other countries.
“So the moment they do that, there will be other countries that will follow suit. So it’s not the £746 million, we too can do that to any other country and invest. But I think it is something to show an appreciation of Mr. President’s good work, the infrastructure he has been building. This will help and complement, but there will be other countries that will do. Germany will come, others… so they will line up and start coming now. This is supposed to be a win-win situation,” he said.
Dangote also urged Nigerian investors to take advantage of emerging opportunities, particularly access to international credit facilities.
“For Nigerian investors it has shown that we can also go to the same agency and tap the resources. It means that the agency now is open for business for Nigerians, and we will go as private people to go and look for them to give us support. It’s a credit agency, which we haven’t really tapped those resources for a very long time. So I think with what has happened now, it shows that there is capacity for them to fund some of our projects,” he explained.
Global Instability
In addition, he expressed concern over global instability in the oil and energy sector, cautioning that its effects would be felt across Nigeria and Africa.
“It means quite a lot. We don’t have much to do with it, but you know the world is a global village, and it definitely will affect us, unfortunately. But we pray this situation will be sorted out, it’s not going to escalate. If it doesn’t de-escalate, we’ll end up paying big prices,” he said.
According to him, Africa is already burdened by debt, and additional shocks from global crises could worsen the situation.
“Like what I said earlier on to CNN, if you look at it today, Africa is very busy paying debts and putting this again on top of us is going to add a lot of hardship on the government, on the people, on everybody, for something that we have no, really, any involvement in,” he said.
Dangote explained that rising energy costs could have far-reaching consequences on businesses and daily life.
“If you look at it now, when you talk about energy, energy affects almost everything and it’s not only energy, some people will try and take a chance and say this is an opportunity so let me make money,” he said.
He expressed concern that if the crisis persists, costs would continue to rise while governments may lack the capacity to increase wages.
“So if this thing doesn’t de-escalate, it is going to keep going up and up and up and governments cannot really now go and add salaries. So people will really feel the heat. People like barbers, people who are making bread, people who have industries, who have to fire their own generators,” Dangote said.
Citing global responses, he noted that some countries have already begun adjusting work patterns due to energy pressures.
“I mean, you can see, in some countries today what they’ve done is ask everybody to work from home because they cannot… I think in Indonesia or so, they said only go to work four days a week and they will look at the situation; if it doesn’t improve, they will ask everybody not to go to work anymore. We did that in the time of COVID-19, where people worked from home,” he said.
Dangote stressed that the situation was particularly dire for many Africans who depend on daily income to survive.
He said, “So I pray, and we all need to pray that this thing de-escalates. If it doesn’t escalate, normally we in Africa, we don’t have any reserves in terms of savings or in terms of… people normally go out and look for money for the next day or even for the same day. If they don’t work that day, they won’t eat. So I think really, we just need all hands on deck to pray that this thing comes to an end.”
Dangote also cautioned that persistent global instability in the oil and energy markets could significantly impact Nigerians, potentially driving up the cost of living nationwide if tensions are not eased.
“I just came to see His Excellency, Mr President, just to wish him Eid Mubarak and to check on him. I haven’t seen him for a while, and wish him all the very best and pay my respect. That’s what the visit is all about,” he added. .