Dangote confident Nigeria can generate 60,000mw of power, especially if those who steal public funds invest them in the economy
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
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“What we have actually done here [building the refinery] is much more difficult than making Nigeria 25,000 or 30,000 megawatts of power, with transmission and distribution. But it’s not the work of government alone.
“We have already asked the government to leave the [power] sector. It’s supposed to be privatised. They have privatised it.
“We, the private sector, Nigerians, most especially us, should stop taking our money abroad and invest the money here to make sure that we develop our own country and continent, because without us showing the confidence that, yes, we have confidence in our own economy and the leadership of the country, foreigners will not come.
“We know our leaders; we have confidence in them. So, that money they’re taking out of the country, they should leave it here so that it can benefit everybody.
“I keep saying this: there’s nowhere that you will say that there’s no corruption. There are lots of countries that have more corruption than we do, but they are growing.
“Our biggest problem and challenge is that people who have stolen money have taken the money abroad.
“So, the money has no use to them; it has no use to their family because they cannot show their family that they have stolen money. And they are not investing here to grow the domestic economy” – Dangote.
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There is no justification for Nigeria’s low power generation, says Aliko Dangote, arguing that if his conglomerate alone can produce over 1,500 megawatts (mw) for internal use, the country should be generating far more.
The President of the Dangote Group made the point on a recent tour of the Dangote Refinery in Lagos, where he highlighted the group’s expanding energy footprint and called for deeper private sector involvement in power generation.
“We as a company alone are producing, group-wide for our own consumption, over 1,500mw.
“So, Nigeria should not be three times what we are producing as a country. Nigeria should be at about 50,000mw to 60,000mw,” he said.
He described what has been achieved at the refinery as proof that large-scale industrial projects are possible in Nigeria, including in the power sector.
“What we have done here just shows that there’s nothing impossible. All this can be replicated in our power sector. There’s no reason why Nigeria should be doing 5,000mw.”
Dangote said building the refinery was more difficult than raising Nigeria’s power to 30,000mw, but stressed that building national power infrastructure is not the exclusive responsibility of the government, as significant private sector participation is both necessary and achievable.
“What we have actually done here is much more difficult than making Nigeria 25,000 or 30,000 megawatts of power, with transmission and distribution. But it’s not the work of government alone.
“We have already asked the government to leave the [power] sector. It’s supposed to be privatised. They have privatised it.
“We, the private sector, Nigerians, most especially us, should stop taking our money abroad and invest the money here to make sure that we develop our own country and continent, because without us showing the confidence that, yes, we have confidence in our own economy and the leadership of the country, foreigners will not come.
“We know our leaders; we have confidence in them. So, that money they’re taking out of the country, they should leave it here so that it can benefit everybody.
“I keep saying this: there’s nowhere that you will say that there’s no corruption. There are lots of countries that have more corruption than we do, but they are growing.
“Our biggest problem and challenge is that people who have stolen money have taken the money abroad.
“So, the money has no use to them; it has no use to their family because they cannot show their family that they have stolen money. And they are not investing here to grow the domestic economy.”
Dangote disclosed plans to become the largest fertiliser producer in the world in the next 40 months by raising production to about 12 million tonnes.
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