- By Halimah Olamide
Frontline businessman and investor, Femi Otedola, has amplified a statement condemning the reported ordeal of the newly established Dangote Refinery.
The statement was said to have been made originally by the President of the African Development Bank, Prof Akinwumi Adesina.
In the statement shared by Otedole, who is a close business associate of the President of the Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, Adesina was quoted as stating that it is rare to find indivuals who can invest in refineries or railway projects.
He was reported to have said that “the whole issue on Dangote is shocking and creating bad waves globally.”
See the full statement below:
This whole issue on Dangote is shocking and creating bad waves for Nigeria globally. – Akinwunmi Adesina Monopoly often exists where there are high barriers to entry or high capital costs. How many individuals or companies can do railways? How many can do refineries of the scale of Dangote Refineries? In a nation that has been importing refined petroleum products for several decades, the abnormal simply became very normal.
No smart investor would make a $19.5 billion investment and want it to be undermined by importers. To manufacture is extremely expensive and risky. This is even more so in Nigeria, given the very challenging business and economic environment, fraught with policy uncertainties and policy reversals, and where the self-defeating default mode of “simply import it” is always so easily rationalized and chorused to solve any problem. Competition is good for everyone.
But is Dangote refineries anti-competitive? What is the evidence? Has Dangote refineries prevented any other company from setting up refineries? Why have others not done so? How come they have not done so for several decades? Was it Dangote that held them back? But Dangote refineries surely cannot be asked to ‘compete’ with importers of petroleum products.
That is not competition. Let the importers set up local refineries and compete by refining in Nigeria. That is fair and justified competition. We cannot and must not undermine, disparage or kill local industries, talk less of one that is of this scale — a jewel of industrialisation in Nigeria. It is more than simply delivering the cheapest product to the market.
It is about domestic supply security, driving (and yes, protecting) globally competitive industries, maximizing forward and backward linkages in the local economy, job creation, reducing forex expenses and shoring up the Naira. We must not be myopic. This whole disparaging of Dangote is uncalled for.
It is self-defeating. And it is very bad for Nigeria. Who will want to come and invest in a country that disparages and undermines its own largest investor? Investing is tough. Pettiness is easy. It sadly sends a signal that the price for sacrificing for Nigeria is to get sacrificed. Akinwunmi Adesina