See interesting pictures of Africa's richest man, Aliko Dangote as he visits Paul and Peter Okoye at their multi-million naira mansion.
Showing posts with label aliko dangote. Show all posts
Showing posts with label aliko dangote. Show all posts
I Won’t Buy National Assets Even If They Are Offered To Me On Credit- Dangote
Following the outcry that has trailed the advocacy for the sale of the country’s national assets as a quick measure to fund the 2016 budget and boost the country’s foreign exchange reserves, the President/Chief Executive of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has dismissed insinuations that his advocacy for the sale of the assets was self-serving, saying he was not interested in any of the assets.
Dangote, who spoke in an exclusive interview withThisDay, stressed that if the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Company or any other national asset was offered to him, even on credit, he would not be interested in acquiring them.
Dangote, who is Africa’s richest man, said his advocacy for the government to sell down some of its interest in some of the national assets was to help boost the economy as well as to stabilise the naira exchange rate, which has been under attack in the past few days.
According to him, he offered his proposal as a way out of Nigeria’s present economic recession because he is “a true Nigerian who really wants the issues about the economy to be sorted out”.
He added: “You know the issue, once your reserves are low, the banks, entrepreneurs, including external forces, would definitely attack your currency. They would speculate on your currency.
“We all know that the exchange rate of almost N500 to the dollar is not a true reflection of the value of the currency – the naira cannot be almost N500 to the dollar!
“But you see, if this thing is not handled properly, it can get out of hand. It can get to N600 to the dollar, or even N700 to the dollar.
“But the issue is, why did I suggest that we should sell some of the assets? I know the touchy one is the NLNG. I want to make it categorically clear that even if the government is selling NLNG on credit, I am not interested in buying.
“I don’t have any interest in NLNG and I will not buy it. It is not a business that I want to invest in. It is a mature business; that is what people don’t understand.
“You see, we should have invested heavily in all these Brass LNG, Olokola LNG, etc, when former President Olusegun Obasanjo started work on the projects, but we missed the opportunity.
“Today, you have massive LNG projects that have been done by Qatar, Australia and the United States is also exporting. But right now, all the gas that we have is even in the ground. Even Mozambique has a massive amount of gas and also Tanzania, and they are nearer to the markets than we are.
“So, if somebody is even going to invest in LNG, he would go to those areas and invest there and not here in Nigeria, because the investment here daunting. So my own suggestion is that even if we must sell, it doesn’t have to be 100 per cent of our interest in NLNG.”
Dangote maintained that even if NLNG was bringing in $1.5 billion into the federal government’s coffers, once the government reduces its stake in the company and it is run more professionally, Nigeria would generate more funds from it.
“People are just saying it is better to go and borrow, but I don’t know where they are coming from. You see, with borrowing, if I have issues with my business today, the bankers who would lend me the money would want to see me doing something first to see how the business can survive. There would be conditionalities.
“But if you are not shedding weight, how do you expect somebody to help you with funding? You have to start first by trying to shed weight and showing the person (lender) who wants to help you with the assets you want to sell,” he explained.
Dangote maintained that Nigeria requires about $15 billion to jumpstart its economy, saying that if the amount were added to Nigeria’s foreign exchange reserves of about $25 billion, this would help attract foreign investors.
“I can assure you that if our forex reserves get to $40 billion, you will be shocked at how people will reject even buying dollars. So, is it worth it for us to keep assets that we are not using? Even the oil assets that I am suggesting for sale, they are not the producing assets. We have a lot of non-producing assets.
“The producing assets only form about 73 per cent of Nigeria’s portfolio. We can also unlock shut-in oil production because today we are losing about 700,000 barrels, be it through negotiations or whatever with the militants. These 700,000 barrels can easily give us about $1 billion a month. So, I am not saying that you should touch the producing assets.
“I am talking about the sale of the marginal fields and all those non-producing and capped oil wells that we have not even touched in the last 50 years. They have not been touched at all. They are there, just dormant.
“These assets form about 14.7 per cent of Nigeria’s portfolio. Some of those assets were bought by Shell and others. These are assets that you are not earning anything from.
“But the moment that you put these assets into use, the money that you will start getting from them, we will be talking about an additional $4 billion to $8 billion, and you can go and borrow money against that,” he added.
Aliko Dangote set to begin coal mining in Kogi
The company said that due to acute gas shortage in the country, following disruptions of supply by militants in the Niger Delta region, it had switched its plant lines to coal to minimize cost.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Dangote Cement, Onne, van der Weijde, said that disruption to the gas supply had deteriorated, adding: “These are challenging times for Nigeria and Dangote Cement but we are taking strong actions that will position the company for continuing success.
Our coal mining initiative will benefit both the company and the Nigerian economy by reducing the need for foreign exchange and helping us to both protect existing jobs and create new ones.
The company said devaluation of the naira had increased costs in its largest market-cement, forcing the company to jerk the ex-factory price of the product by N600 per bag.
Dangote, Only African to Make the List of the Top 51 World's Richest Billionaires 2016...Check Out the Full List
People are really making more and more money even as many complain about the recession. See the list of the 51st richest Billionaires in 2016.
So Inspirational: Check Out Early Jobs of Some Famous Billionaires
This is a list of prominently rich people in the world today who have started on a low ebb before they reached great height.
Bill Gate
No one starts his/her career at the top. Experience really matters here and often, a bit of time, to succeed. Even the exceptional entrepreneur and innovator, Steve Jobs, spent quite some time trying to discover his purpose and direction in his early years, abandoning his job as a designer of video games to travel through India.
The early lives and engagements of mega-successful people can be eventful to ruminate on and we might, from there, learn one or more things about our own paths. The following are the early jobs of 6 famous billionaires.
(1) BILL GATE (Computer Programmer)
With a net worth of $75 billion in 2016, he tops Forbes’ billionaires’ list. Gates was always excited about computers and works with them in a revolutionary ways while still in high school. After taking advantage of the software glitches to obtain extra computer time when he lost his computer privileges, Bill designed a scheduling program for his school as well as a payroll program for the computer company he had hacked into. Although, at that point, his hobby as a computer programmer was not an official paying job for him, his passion drove him to do the work.
(2) WARREN BUFFETT (Newspaper Delivery)
Summing up the beginnings of Buffet’s exceptional career in business by stating only that he delivered newspapers would not be fair. Warren’s early life was actually quite remarkable. In his early years, he was identified as having superb skills in mathematics and he ambitiously had keen desire to be great. His first investment was in stock-brokerage at the age of 11 and filed his first tax returns at the age of 13 for his paper-route. He claimed his bicycle had a $35 tax deduction. Now, he is worth more than $60 billion.
(3) JEFF BEZOS (Camp Director/Camp Counselor)
Worth more than $45 billion, Jeff Bezos is an entrepreneur, investor and the founder of Amazon.com. His ambition was evident from an early age like many others on this list. His early job came in high school where he started his first business; an educational summer camp program which he designed for younger students called ‘the Dream Institute’. This helped paved the way for all that was to come in his now future.
(4) MICHAEL BLOOMBERG (Parking Lot Attendant)
Presently with a net worth of $40 billion, Michael Bloomberg was not always the businessman that you see now. He paid his way through Johns Hopkins University when he was a young man with student loans and working as a parking attendant. He exhibited an early interest in public service by becoming one of the country’s astute youngest Eagle Scouts back in 1958.
(5) PHIL KNIGHT (Assistant Professor)
According to Forbes‘ most recent list, Phil Knight is worth an estimated $24.4 billion. He is the co-founder of Nike Inc. Knight wasn’t sure exactly what he wanted to engage in professionally. As a result, he did many different jobs as a young man. Phil served in the army for some time and also worked as an assistant professor at Portland State University. He also showed an interest in athletics at a very young age as he was a middle-distance runner in college at the University of Oregon in Eugene where he studied journalism.
(6) ALIKO DANGOTE (Petty Trader)
As of July 2016, he had an estimated net worth of $15.4 billion. The richest African entrepreneur owns the Dangote Group which has interests in commodities. The company operates in Nigeria and other African countries, including Benin, South Africa, Senegal, Cameroon, Ghana, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Togo and Zambia. His entrepreneurial skill began at a very early age when he was in primary school.
He would buy cartons of sweets (sugar boxes) and sell them just to make money even though he came from a rich background. Today, the same passion has led him into building a stupendous business empire.
