The President of the Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has said the diversification of the Nigerian economy needs to be achieved urgently, following Monday’s crash in the price of crude oil.
Dangote, said this on Wednesday, while speaking at the ‘Going for Growth 2.0,’ in Abuja.
Crude oil price had slumped by 30 per cent to about $30 per barrel on Monday, but edged higher to $37 per barrel on Tuesday.
“The diversification of this economy is very important, in fact, we are late. Since 1979 that I came to Lagos, people have been talking about the diversification of the Nigerian economy. You can only diversify the economy through manufacturing and agriculture. Manufacturing actually creates a lot of jobs, creates middle class and also transforms countries. These are areas we need to really focus on. But, you need backward integration or import substitution to achieve this,” he said.
Dangote, pointed out that Nigeria has a readily available market, because of its huge population and stressed the need for government to remove factors that have continued to constrain the manufacturing sector. According to him, providing enablers such as road and power infrastructure would have the government effectively diversify the economy from crude oil.
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