Dangote has urged the federal government to sell
off the Nigerian Liquified Natural Gas company,
NLNG as well as other dormant but huge capital-
generating sectors and invest the proceeds back
into the economy to bring Nigeria out of its
current recession before the end of fourt quarter.
In an interview with CNBC Africa, the billionaire
said: “The only way for us to get out of this
recession is to make sure we move into action
quickly; action by diversifying the economy
quickly.
“If I had challenges in my company, I would not
hesitate to sell assets, to remain afloat, to get to
the better times, because it doesn’t make any
sense for me to keep any assets and then
suffocate the whole organisation.
“What we need to do now in my own thinking…
we have a lot of assets to sell. We can sell part
of the joint venture; part of the shares. You know
government normally owns 60 percent.
“We can sell in an open tender be it Chinese. We
can change the term and make it an operating
one, just like what we have in NLNG. We also
have another asset I think we don’t really need.
“The African finance corporation; it can fetch
them $800million easily. My own suggestion
before was that they should even sell 100 percent
of NLNG. I don’t think government should be in
any business of investing in sectors of LNG.
“A company like that, with earnings of $1.5 billion
on the average, they should get anywhere
between $12 billion and $15 billion.”
Dangote suggested investing the proceeds back
into the economy to boost development.
“You will not believe that the crisis that we have
today, if we have $15 billion, adding it to our $25
billion, that is $40 billion reserves. That will give
confidence, confidence will come back, then
government will back it up with proper economic
policy, where people can see the roadmap.
“Latest by fourth quarter we will be out of
recession. It should be a partnership between
government and private sector. We have all the
answers, Nigeria falling into recession does not
really scare me, if we take action.
The businessman said if the government boosts
reserves as suggested, the naira may fall to 250
to the dollar and help the economy.
“Once we can sell assets, and put $15 billion
together, you’d be very shocked at how much the
dollar will actually drop, you can easily see 250.
What is happening today is mere speculation.
“To currency, everybody will speculate, banks will
speculate, companies will speculate, individuals
will speculate, because if you have money you
want to send in from abroad you will keep
sending in trickles.
“If you know that CBN has $40 billion in reserves
today, if you have $100,000, you might even sell
it forward because you know that this rate is
going to crash and you must quickly sell it.”
www.vanguardngr.com/2016/09/sell-off-nlng-invest-proceed-well-recession-dangote-tells-buhari/