- Safiu Kehinde
Nigerian billionaire businessman and CEO of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has paid a courtesy visit to President Bola Tinubu at his residence in Lagos.
Dangote had on Monday evening arrived at Bourdillon street to pay homage to Tinubu.
Addressing newsmen on the reason behind his visit, Dangote disclosed that he only came to pay Eid-el-Fitr homage to the President.
“I just came to see his Excellency Mr President to just wish him Eid-Mubarak and also ask after his health. I haven’t seen him for a while. I wished him the very best and paid my respect.” He said.
Speaking on Tinubu’s visit to the United Kingdom and the £746 million agreement deal with the UK government to refurbish two major Lagos ports, Dangote labelled the agreement a welcome development.
He described the UK’s commitment of such amount of money into Nigeria as a show of confidence in the country.
“I think it has opened ways. Today, diplomacy without the economic part of it is not complete. I believe his visit will open a lot of doors.
“And you can see the agreement that he signed will actually improve our infrastructures mostly the port and other areas which is almost 746 million pounds. That’s quite a lot.
“It’s not that easy dealing with British in getting this kind of money out of them. They too are struggling on their own.
“But I think this is to show confidence. It is not about the money. It is about the confidence in Nigeria. The moment they do that; other countries will follow suit.” He said.
While lauding Tinubu over his commitment to infrastructural development, Dangote charged local investors to capitalise on the deals and initiatives attracted by the Federal Government from other countries.
“I think it is something to show an appreciation for Mr. President’s good work. The infrastructure he has been building, this will help and complement.
“For Nigerian investors, we can also go to the same agencies and tap the resources. It means that the agency now is open for business.” The Africa’s richest man said.
On the ongoing Middle East crisis and its impact on the oil sector, Dangote called for the de-escalation of the crisis, warning that further escalation will have severe impact on global economy, especially Africa.
“It means quite a lot. The world is a global village and definitely it will affect us. But we pray this situation is not going to escalate. If it doesn’t de-escalate, we will end up paying big prices.
“If you look at it today, Africa is very busy in debt and putting this again on top of us is going to add a lot of hardship on people and the government.
“When you talk about energy, energy affects almost everything. Some people try and take a chance and say this is an opportunity so let me make money.
“If this doesn’t de-escalate, it is going to keep going up and government cannot really go and add salaries. People will really feel the heat.” He said.
Dangote disclosed that some countries have started encouraging their citizens to work from home in a bid to cushion the effect of the rise in oil price.
“In some countries today, what they’ve done is to ask everybody to work from home. I think Indonesia or so said only go to work for four days a week.
“If it doesn’t improve, they will ask everybody not to go to work.” He added.