Following the criticisms by foreign media who are calling for a massive devaluation of the naira instead of foreign exchange restrictions on certain items such as rice and toothpicks by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Africa’s richest man and foremost businessman, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has come out in strong support of the CBN’s decision, calling the ban on 41 items from forex market as "excellent and one of the best decisions taken so far by the CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele."
Apparently miffed by criticisms in some quarters against the apex bank’s decision to restrict forex on the importation of certain items, Dangote, who is President of Dangote Group, described the CBN’s intervention as appropriate for the Nigerian economy saying, “We cannot be importing poverty and exporting jobs.”
The apex bank recently announced the restriction of importers of 41 items from accessing forex from the official foreign exchange market.
Some of these items include rice, wheel barrows, head pans, cement, margarine, palm kernel/vegetable oil, meat and processed meat products, vegetable and processed vegetable products, poultry, private airplanes/jets, Indian incense, toothpicks and canned fish in sauce (geisha/sardines), among others.
Dangote believes that this should be seen as a clarion call for all hands to be on deck in the development of the nation’s economy disclosing that the foreign exchange restrictions on the 41 items also affected the Dangote Group, especially the Dangote Rice. He however believes that the measure would encourage his firm “to look inward and massively produce locally to create jobs for our growing young population.”
Dangote said without such ban by the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, he wouldn’t have got the opportunity to grow his cement business as it is today such that he is now exporting cement when only 10 years ago Nigeria was importing cement massively.
His cement firms, Obajana Cement Plc Kogi; Benue Cement Company, Benue and Dangote Cement Works Ltd, Ibese have a combined capacity of 20 million metric tonnes per annum, providing hundreds of thousands of direct and indirect jobs across Nigeria.
“When Obasanjo introduced the policy, he was massively criticized by multinationals and the same foreign media. But today, we are self-sufficient in cement production,” he recalled.
Dangote maintained that those criticising Emefiele for the decision on foreign exchange restrictions do not have the interest of Nigerians at heart.
He therefore called on people in the South-south region of the country to focus on the development of palm plantations instead of importing palm oil. In the same vein, he enjoined the people of Nigeria to see this as an opportunity to invest in fish farming across Nigeria from the North to the Atlantic ocean, rather than importing fish, saying Nigeria can borrow a leaf from Senegal. "Although fish is a major staple food in Senegal, the country does not import fish..... why should we be importing fish in Nigeria with all our God given ocean resources,” he asked.
He lauded Emefiele for his bold and courageous decision to place certain items that could be produced locally on forex restrictions.
The CBN had also in a statement on Friday dismissed a report by The Economist titled: “Toothpick Alert,” published in the print edition of July 4, 2015, of the international magazine., insisting that Nigeria's economic fundamentals remain strong despite grappling with oil price decline.
The apex bank added that it would not take desperate measures to satisfy those it described as “few misguided interests in the market.”
The banking sector regulator also said it would "not panic", even as it reiterated that Nigeria cannot attain its full potentials by importing anything and everything.
The CBN had stated in the statement:
"Take rice imports, for example: why should we keep allocating scarce forex to rice importers when vast amounts of paddy rice of comparable quality produced by poor hardworking local farmers across the rice belts of Nigeria are wasted, and farmers are falling deeper into poverty while we export their jobs and income to rice producing countries?
"Few decades ago, Nigeria was one of the world’s largest producers of palm oil but today we import nearly 600,000 metric tonnes while Indonesia and Malaysia combine to export over 90 per cent of global demand. Under these circumstances, the CBN will do the little it can to protect the jobs and incomes of local farmers, using some of the same principles Western Economies use to justify the protection of their farmers through huge subsidies."
The apex bank recently announced the restriction of importers of 41 items from accessing forex from the official foreign exchange market.
Some of these items include rice, wheel barrows, head pans, cement, margarine, palm kernel/vegetable oil, meat and processed meat products, vegetable and processed vegetable products, poultry, private airplanes/jets, Indian incense, toothpicks and canned fish in sauce (geisha/sardines), among others.
Dangote believes that this should be seen as a clarion call for all hands to be on deck in the development of the nation’s economy disclosing that the foreign exchange restrictions on the 41 items also affected the Dangote Group, especially the Dangote Rice. He however believes that the measure would encourage his firm “to look inward and massively produce locally to create jobs for our growing young population.”
Dangote said without such ban by the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, he wouldn’t have got the opportunity to grow his cement business as it is today such that he is now exporting cement when only 10 years ago Nigeria was importing cement massively.
His cement firms, Obajana Cement Plc Kogi; Benue Cement Company, Benue and Dangote Cement Works Ltd, Ibese have a combined capacity of 20 million metric tonnes per annum, providing hundreds of thousands of direct and indirect jobs across Nigeria.
“When Obasanjo introduced the policy, he was massively criticized by multinationals and the same foreign media. But today, we are self-sufficient in cement production,” he recalled.
Dangote maintained that those criticising Emefiele for the decision on foreign exchange restrictions do not have the interest of Nigerians at heart.
He therefore called on people in the South-south region of the country to focus on the development of palm plantations instead of importing palm oil. In the same vein, he enjoined the people of Nigeria to see this as an opportunity to invest in fish farming across Nigeria from the North to the Atlantic ocean, rather than importing fish, saying Nigeria can borrow a leaf from Senegal. "Although fish is a major staple food in Senegal, the country does not import fish..... why should we be importing fish in Nigeria with all our God given ocean resources,” he asked.
He lauded Emefiele for his bold and courageous decision to place certain items that could be produced locally on forex restrictions.
The CBN had also in a statement on Friday dismissed a report by The Economist titled: “Toothpick Alert,” published in the print edition of July 4, 2015, of the international magazine., insisting that Nigeria's economic fundamentals remain strong despite grappling with oil price decline.
The apex bank added that it would not take desperate measures to satisfy those it described as “few misguided interests in the market.”
The banking sector regulator also said it would "not panic", even as it reiterated that Nigeria cannot attain its full potentials by importing anything and everything.
The CBN had stated in the statement:
"Take rice imports, for example: why should we keep allocating scarce forex to rice importers when vast amounts of paddy rice of comparable quality produced by poor hardworking local farmers across the rice belts of Nigeria are wasted, and farmers are falling deeper into poverty while we export their jobs and income to rice producing countries?
"Few decades ago, Nigeria was one of the world’s largest producers of palm oil but today we import nearly 600,000 metric tonnes while Indonesia and Malaysia combine to export over 90 per cent of global demand. Under these circumstances, the CBN will do the little it can to protect the jobs and incomes of local farmers, using some of the same principles Western Economies use to justify the protection of their farmers through huge subsidies."
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