…Inspects road project
President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote has assured that the Apapa Port Wharf concrete road currently under construction by his company, AG Dangote would be delivered on schedule to save the people and businesses the hassles of the traffic gridlock being experienced now.
He gave the assurance yesterday when he visited the construction area in company with the Managing Director of the AG Dangote Construction Company, Mr Ashif Juma to assess the extent of work done.
The Apapa Port road which is the artery of the nation’s non-oil economy, has been in a state of disrepair over a long period of time with experts claiming that the nation is losing about N20 billion daily owing to the state of dilapidation of the road as imports are trapped in the ports for days as a result of traffic gridlock generated by the bad road.
Dangote Group, a pan African Conglomerate and a major stakeholder at the ports brokered a tripartite arrangement with Flour Mills, a leading Nigerian Food Company and Nigerian Port Authority, (NPA), taking over the road from the Federal Government and undertaking the reconstruction of the road into a lasting concrete pavement as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility.
The road construction in which both NPA and Flour Mills have financial outlay as their contributions while AG Dangote Construction, a subsidiary of the Dangote Group, is undertaking the construction, is to cost the three partners N4.3 billion
Dangote said the road will be completed in few months’ time and that Nigerians would be surprised to see the project delivered even before scheduled, saying efforts are being redoubled by his company to ensure quality job and timely completion.
According to him: by the time the road construction is completed, even some of the advanced countries would not be able to boast of the quality.”
He explained that what actually delay the take-off of the project was the gas pipeline that has to be relocated to pave the way for unfettered construction work “and having done that, you could see that the work is progressing at a very fast speed.”
The businessman while relying on the reports of the challenges encountered by the site engineers appealed to the authorities to help see to the disturbing issue of multiple check points being mounted by security agencies and which have been creating long queues of trailers and thus affecting free flow of work on the road project.
He also explained that his company has agreed with the federal government to do some palliatives on the Mile2 expressway road to ease the traffic congestion and ensure free flow of vehicular movement.
Dangote stated that the road was very strategic because Apapa and Tin Can Island ports handle about 80 per cent of the cargo that come into Nigeria and the condition of the road has made nonsense of businesses depending on the ports efficient operations.
He said that he more worried about the fate of small businesses and other port users that have imported cargo and whose charges are accumulating every day.
Mr. Juma took Dangote and his team round the construction area and showed him how they have been following the designs handed over to his company.
Speaking in similar vein, Group Managing Director of Flour Mills, Mr. Paul Gbededo said the three partners have shown how to be good corporate citizens saying by the time the road project is completed it would be one never seen before in the country.
L-R: Group Managing Director, Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc, Paul Gbededo; President/CE, Dangote Industries Limited, Aliko Dangote; Managing Director, AG-Dangote Construction Company Limited; and Acting Group Managing Director, Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc, Engr, Abdullahi Sule, on the road inspection of Apapa-Wharf Road under construction by AG-Dangote Construction Company…on Wednesday.
L-R: Federal Controller, Works Lagos, Godwin Eke; Group Managing Director, Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc, Paul Gbededo; President/CE, Dangote Industries Limited, Aliko Dangote; and Managing Director, AG-Dangote Construction Company Limited, on the road inspection of Apapa-Wharf Road under construction by AG-Dangote Construction Company on Wednesday
L-R: Group Managing Director, Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc, Paul Gbededo; President/CE, Dangote Industries Limited, Aliko Dangote; and Managing Director, AG-Dangote Construction Company Limited, on the road inspection of Apapa-Wharf Road under construction by AG-Dangote Construction Company on Wednesday
L-R: President/CE, Dangote Industries Limited, Aliko Dangote; Managing Director, AG-Dangote Construction Company Limited; and Acting Group Managing Director, Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc, Engr, Abdullahi Sule, on the road inspection of Apapa-Wharf Road under construction by AG-Dangote Construction Company on Wednesday
President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has emerged one of the selected ‘Best 50’ in the world in 2017 Bloomberg on Monday announced The Bloomberg 50, a new, annual, multi-platform initiative that honor 50 icons and innovators who have changed the global business landscape in measurable ways over the past year.
The first Bloomberg 50 honorees were selected by the Bloomberg Businessweek team after months of input from many of Bloomberg’s 2,700 journalists and analysts around the globe, leveraging the resources of the Bloomberg Terminal, and represent the most influential thought leaders in business, finance, technology and science, politics, and entertainment.
The executives, entrepreneurs, experts, and entertainers on the Bloomberg 50 all have a quantifiable metric underpinning their inclusion.
“What sets The Bloomberg 50 apart from other lists is that each person chosen has demonstrated measurable change over the past year,” said Megan Murphy, editor of Bloomberg Businessweek. “Readers will find many names they recognize, but will also discover new visionaries—people who are impacting the world in significant ways, and are rapidly gaining the attention they deserve.”
Other prominent honoree on the Bloomberg 50 include – Mohammed bin Salman, Crown prince, Saudi Arabia, a primary proponent of an initiative that would allow women to drive, a decision that is forecast to add $90 billion to the economy by 2030; Elon Musk, CEO, Tesla Inc. and Space Exploration Technologies with a market capitalization of over $50 billion. Elon Musk nurses the ambition to establish human colony on planet Mars by 2022; Jeff Bezos, CEO, Amazon, the biggest global retailer, with a major interest in sending tourists into space in Blue Origin rockets; Masayoshi Son, Founder, Softbank Groups Corp., who engineered the largest ever technology investment fund, $93billion, to fund ride-hailing, artificial intelligence, connected devices, satellites, and the integration of computers to humans; Diane Greene, CEO, Google Cloud and the brain behind integrating advances in artificial intelligence and quantum computing to market; Ken Frazier, CEO, Merck & Co., a leader in drug makers market with an innovative drug for advanced lung cancer treatment.
Dangote, who only last week inaugurated his $300 million 1.5 mtpa capacity cement plant in Congo Brazzaville, has remained a top notch in various global ranking. Dangote said: “I am very delighted with this selection and I see the recognition as a call to do more towards youth empowerment, job creation, better health for the people and economic emancipation of the African continent”
As of February 2017, Dangote, according to Forbes Magazine had an estimated net worth of US$12.5 billion. He is ranked by Forbes magazine as the 67th richest person in the world and the richest in Africa, and peaked on the list as the 23rd richest person in the world in 2014. Bloomberg is a global information and technology company, that connect decision makers to a dynamic network of data, people and ideas – “accurately delivering business and financial information, news and insights to customers around the world”
Bloomberg in the preface written by Paul Wallace synopsized Dangote’s person and business in the following words: “the quiet billionaire for his relatively frugal lifestyle, Dangote fast-tracked plans to help his country of 180 million people import less of what it eats. Dangote, who made his fortune in the cement industry, is turning his attention to dairy and sugar farming; he’s earmarked $800 million to buy 50,000 cattle in the hope of producing 500 million liters of milk annually by 2019.
He’s also racing to finish a 650,000-barrel-a-day oil refinery near Lagos, set to be one of the world’s biggest, and says he intends to spend as much as $50 billion in the next decade on renewable energy and petrochemical refineries, including investments in the U.S. and Europe. Which is all fine, but not quite his grand ambition: buying Arsenal, his favorite soccer team”
Nigeria’s business mogul, Aliko Dangote has declared that Africa will soon become the food basket of the world.
Dangote told investors “Agriculture, agriculture, agriculture in the United Nations that Africa will become the food basket of the world.”
In a packed room at the headquarters of global law firm Shearman and Sterling LLC high level business leaders and international diplomats invited by the Corporate Council for Africa to hear Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, and Rwandan president Paul Kagame openly converse on Africa’s opportunities and challenges.
Both leaders underscored the ongoing movement to diversify African economies. In the case of Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, Dangote stated “we should pray that oil prices remain low. This helps wean us off the dependency on revenues from petroleum. We must take oil to be the icing on the cake. We already have the cake,” he added.
In addition to agriculture Dangote cited Nigeria’s vast mineral resources and gas as well and the need to manufacture more goods locally for domestic consumption. Both he and President Kagame cited continued need for heavy investments in education and connected the need for young people to be well trained for the jobs of tomorrow.
Dangote predicted that “five of the twelve million jobs needed in Africa soon must be created in Nigeria.”
Dangote’s fortune which stems from cement, sugar, and other household commodities has expanded into fertilizer and other processed high-value goods. “Technology of course helps us a lot and our factories are state of the art with the use of robotics but we shouldn’t be overly tech oriented to create wealth,” he told investors.
Mr. Dangote who is often cited as one of the most inspiring business leaders in the world today and a model for young entrepreneurs offered advice to Americans who tend to rely on outdated news and wrong perceptions of Africa, “Don’t be lazy. Go there and find the real story for yourself. Things have changed.”
Dangote noted the Rwanda success story where he has business interests as an example of positive change, good governance and leadership, and where corruption has been cured. He cited a personal experience of offering a $100 US tip for services at the Kigali Airport to staff who refused to take money for work they were paid to do. President Kagame was praised for delivering the environment for growth he promised. “There is nothing African about corruption,” the Rwandan president added.
The session was moderated by Rosa Whitaker, former US Trade Representative and author of the AGOA (African Growth Opportunity Act), whose business consultancy is credited for helping both African governments and US companies develop commerce.
Dangote said on Sunday in Lagos that this was in response to the request by the Benue State Government.
He said that the committee had also approved the release of one of its completed IDP Hostels in the state as a temporary shelter for some of the displaced people.
The former President Goodluck Jonathan had on Oct. 11, 2012, inaugurated the Dangote-led 34-member National Committee on Flood Relief and Rehabilitation.
The committee was charged with raising of additional funds to support the government’s efforts to provide adequate relief and post-impact rehabilitation to persons and communities affected by floods in the country.
Dangote said the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) had disclosed that more than 110,000 people in 24 communities, including Makurdi, were displaced by the recent flood in Benue.
The committee chairman said that asides the donation to Benue, his committee had also donated N150 million to provide relief assistance to flood victims in Anambra,
Dangote, in a statement by Mr. Sunday Esan of the Corporate Communication Department of Dangote Group, said that the committee had also released N118 million to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).
He said that this was to augment the N1.6 billion released by the Federal Government for procurement of food and non-food relief materials in aid of flood victims in 16 states.
According to him, the states are Abia, Akwa-Ibom, Bayelsa, Ebonyi, Edo, Ekiti, Enugu, Abuja FCT, Kebbi, Kwara, Lagos, Niger, Ondo, Oyo, Plateau and Sokoto.
He said that the committee was currently implementing the various projects in the 24 states affected by the 2012 nationwide floods.
Dangote said that the rationale behind the projects was to assist the benefiting states to better handle future emergencies, including flooding.
Weekly equity transactions on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) closed on Thursday on upbeat note as the All-Share Index grew by 1.42 per cent.
The index rose by 507.12 basis points to close higher at 336,116.19 against the 35,609.07 achieved on Wednesday.
Market capitalisation, which opened at N12.249 trillion, rose by N175 billion or 1.42 per cent to close at N12.448 trillion.
An analysis of the price movement chart indicated that Dangote Cement recorded the highest gain to lead the gainers table by N9.79 to close at N216.91 per share.
Guinness followed with a gain of N8.94 to close at N1, 126, while Stanbic IBTC appreciated by N1.49 to close at N39.9 per share.
Nigeria Breweries gained N1.4 to close at N184, while Flour Mill increased by N1 to close at N30 per share.
Conversely, Seplat topped the losers’ chart, losing N24.1 to close at N457.9 per share. Mobil trailed with a loss 99k to close at N165.61, while NCR lost 36k to close at N6.97 per share.
FBNH depreciated by 20k to close at N5.76, while Oando shed by 23k to close at N6.3 per share.
The volume of shares traded, however, decreased by 20.99 per cent with an exchange of 222.69 million shares worth N4.17 billion traded in 4,622 deals.
This was in contrast to the 281.83 million shares valued at N5.42 billion traded in 4,066 deals on Wednesday.
Sterling Bank emerged the toast of investors, accounting for 36.58 million shares valued at N37.25 million.
It was followed by Royalex with 35.72 million shares valued at N17.86 million.
Fidelity Bank traded 21.91 million shares worth N29.39 million, while Access Bank sold 21.55 million shares worth N212.45 million.
Dangote Group has signed a $450 million Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Niger State government to develop an integrated sugar industry in Lavun, with a sugar plantation sized to be longer than Lagos to Ibadan expressway.
Details of the project made available to the NAN indicates that it would involve the development of a sugar cane plantation of about 16,000 hectares or 160 kilometre square.
Lagos to Ibadan expressway is estimated between 120 kilometres and 130 kilometers — more than 30 kilometres shorter than the length of the proposed sugar plantation.
At 2,835 kilometre square, Lavun — the local government where the project will be situated in Niger — is bigger than two thirds the size of Lagos, which is 3,577 kilometre square.
Aliko Dangote, president of Dangote Group, in a brief remark shortly after signing the MoU in Minna, said that the project would be supplemented by an out-grower scheme to produce 12,000 tons of sugar cane per day.
“Dangote Group is a firm believer in the vast economic potential of Nigeria. We have decided to invest in local sugar production in Niger because of the vast arable land available in the state,” he said.
He said that the MOU also involved the establishment of a large scale rice milling factory to process up to 200,000 metric tons of rice to be sourced mainly from out-grower scheme in another part of the state.
According to him, the sugar project will commence in September, after compensations had been paid to the host communities.
He, however, disclosed that beyond agriculture, the company was constructing a multi-billion dollar petroleum refinery in Lekki, Lagos State, with a capacity for 650,000 barrels per day.
Dangote said that the petroleum refinery project would rank as the world’s largest single line refinery, adding that it would make Nigeria an exporter of petroleum products.
Responding, Abubakar Bello, governor of the state, said that the project would change the economic fortunes of Niger from a mono-source to a state with multiple sources of income.
He added that the project would generate employment opportunities for the teaming youths and provide social amenities for the host communities via corporate social responsibility projects.
“It is pleasing to note that Dangote Group, in line with its corporate philosophy, has undertaken, in the MOU, to also support a strong out-grower scheme by agreeing to purchase up to 30 per cent of their sugar cane requirement from host communities integrated into the project,” he said.
Bello gave the assurance that the state team and the Dangote Group would work diligently to finalise the acquisition of the land so as to quicken the take-off of the project.
He said that the state government had begun the processes toward passing a law to protect investors in the state.
Also speaking, Okechukwu Enelamah, minister of industry, trade and investment, who commended Dangote Group for complementing federal government’s efforts toward economic growth, said that government would continue to encourage domestic investors.
Represented by Aminu Bisalla, the ministry’s permanent secretary, Enelamah said that government would continue to develop policies that would support the efforts of local investors.
NAN reports that Dangote signed the MOU on behalf of the company, while Bello signed on behalf of the state government.
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