Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote suffered a huge loss due to coronavirus on Wednesday, March 11, as he lost N240 billion in five hours.
Dangote’s firms under the parent-company ‘Dangote Group’, suffered huge losses just after the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared coronavirus a pandemic (spreading in multiple countries around the world at the same time).
The Nation reported that Dangote Cement Plc which is Nigeria’s most capitalized quoted company and accounts for more than 20 percent of the total market capitalization, led the decline with the maximum daily allowable drop of 10 percent or N17, which is equivalent to net depreciation of N289.68 billion.
Dangote Sugar Refinery (DSR) Plc and NASCON Allied Industries Plc lost N1.8 billion and N3.05 billion. Dangote Cement’s share price dropped by N17 from N170 to close at N153. NASCON Allied Industries declined by N1.15 to close at N3.05 while DSR lost 15 kobo to close at N9.75 per share.
Meanwhile, Business mogul and Africa’s richest man, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, says Nigeria’s economy is not working.
This is as even as he said Nigeria’s economic diversification programme has been largely sluggish and elusive, warning that the risks are huge if Nigeria fails to fast-track the diversification of her economy.
Dangote spoke Wednesday at the ongoing Roundtable parley with the CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, with the theme “Going for Growth 2.0.”
The business mogul said: “My heart bled when I read that Nigerian Customs collected N1.35trn import duties last year. It means the economy isn’t working. If the economy is working, the Customs shouldn’t collect that much money, it is the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) that should.”
The President of the Dangote Group, who expressed concern over the impact of the current drop in international oil prices, said the time to diversify is now as Nigeria is already runny late.
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He identified agriculture and manufacturing sectors as the hub round which the nation’s economic diversification should be hinged to achieve the goal of sustainable national development.
Dangote clarified: “We can diversify the economy through agriculture and manufacturing. Manufacturing creates a lot of jobs, creates middle class and transforms families. These are the areas we need to focus on. But how do you diversify into manufacturing and make it an inclusive growth? You need to do more of backward integration or import substitution.
“Our economy is great because we have a local market. The economy of Asia is focused on exports. But we have a domestic market with our about 200 million population apart from the ECOWAS market.
“Our import last year was almost $47bn. It is not sustainable. We cannot have 200 million people, growing at an average 2.7 percent and we are importing most of the things we consume”, the industrialist said.
According to him, “we need to be more serious so we don’t keep talking about diversification. It has been very elusive. I don’t know why. It is possible but people are not focusing on” he said.
Noting that Nigeria has significant advantages in manufacturing, the Africa’s richest man advised that talks during the Roundtable should generate workable solutions to the nation’s industrial challenges.
Dangote also lamented that the poor facilities leading to the seaports remained economic drain as it continued to impacting cost of doing businesses, adding that the government should look into the cost of doing business in view of the implications for investments and the nation’s GDP.
He said: “Government lost so much money last year in the traffic logjams of Apapa. Our three companies lost N30bn in profit. Which also means government will collect less tax from us. So, we need to look at infrastructure, we need to look at power because without power there won’t be growth. That is what will propel MSMEs to grow and be everywhere and spur manufacturing” he said.
