Chairman of the Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote has said that the current economic situation in the country is no cause for alarm.
The foremost industrialist indicated that he is of the opinion that the current state of the economy is more of a blessing, as it would create an enabling environment for economic diversification.
“If we don’t diversify the economy now, then we would never do it,” he said.
“I think people are under estimating the economy of Nigeria. They just go and look at foreign exchange and concluded that, because price of oil has gone down, it means that everything has gone out of the window. That is not correct, in some areas, yes, depending on your business. Sometimes, crisis is also an opportunity, so you use it very well so that the crisis should not happen to you.
“I think the one quick policy, which is what we have been talking about is diversification of the economy. This is the right moment. I know in Nigeria, once the oil price goes up to $80, nobody will diversify, we would go back to our misbehaviour.
“Government should be very specific and come out with clear policy that we would support. And the implementation has to be monitored. If we don’t do it now, we would never do it. Nigerian firms should learn to export Nigerian goods that can be very competitive. We don’t have to export goods from here to East Africa. We have 15 countries in the ECOWAS region, which are duty-free.
“At the moment, most of the companies are not geared up for export which I think is a big mistake because when you have more volume, you can make more money and become more competitive. The scenario of export is that if I meet up with my domestic market, I can actually take the excess and dump it in another country. It will give me much more profit. The issue is about capacity. If you have it fine.”
