₦airaland Forum

pri3stess:
So you feel white people are better than you because YOU think Africans have not invented anything?

Do you know it was a fellow Nigerian that created the formula for fast computers?
Do you also know that it was a Nigerian that made advancements to modern crude oil refining?
Do you know that ancient Egyptians are the ones that started modern medicine? Those ancient Egyptians had the same skin color like you and me btw.
Do you know the vital parts of that phone/ computer you used to type your comment was mined in the democratic republic of congo? If the Congolese government decided that they don't want western cooperations to mine their natural resources, the price of electronic devices will sky rocket.
Do you know it was a black person that invented the first air conditioner?
The first telephone with caller ID was invented by a black person.
Those inverters that some Nigerians use for electricity was invented by a black person.
Blood banks were invented by a black person
A black person made the first traffic signal
A black person created the ironing board.
A black person created the machines that factories use to make shoes.
Next time you walk through a door like this, just know it was a black person that made it possible.
https://i.imgur.com/ixf4W.gif

A black person gave me the ability to post moving pictures like this to respond to you people's deplorable comments and display of low self-esteem.
[img]https://media./media/13ATyLQB0rLVzG/giphy.gif[/img]

I could go on an on..............

A fellow Nigerian creating fast computers may not be correct, it's a claim that's still disputed, and l would take my time to verify the rest of your claims later on when l'm chanced.

pri3stess:
No actually. I'm smart and I'm very enlightened. I don't think any race is better than me. I believe Africa is the best continent in the world. I love being African. From your post I can see you don't feel the same way. Very unfortunate.

This is not just about belief and sentiments, what has the black race as a whole achieved indigenously to show superiority over the white except for the detailed art works of bronze from ancient kingdoms like the Benin and Ile lfe kingdoms?

Wrong question! the question you should ask is...What have we invented to prove we are not worse than them at least? And why aren't we inventing?

Alao046:
Its not today that i have known christains as FOOLS. Foolish pastors keep brainwashing the senseless and foolish followers. I thank God for making me discover the scam in this religion, i am now a fully converted muslim and i pray to God to make me die in this religion of Islam.

From frypan to fire, they are all thesame. Whatever religion you choose for yourself just go in with your brain.

sufferNsmiling:
You want facts I will give you facts. your richest african imported things in to the north off nigeria for more than 20 years all the industries ,textile companies, commercial farms, most locally produced companies packed up in the north of nigeria. Look at the north of nigeria today people are dying of starvation today. Now that the northern parts off nigeria is collapsed and the people do not have money he turned his attention to southwest. Buy time He finishes with southwest you will not have any good schools again. He will finish the southwest like the northern parts of nigeria. Why do you think lagos is falling in all statistics in africa. I know this man very well and I know his business tactics. It is not to develop the southwest but to make them beggars like the northern parts of nigeria that is his goal when you have nothing you cannot fight. He run all the industries in lagos to the ground and send the remaining to ghana or cameroon

Allegations! l want proof that he was the sole importer of all those things you mentioned, in your last post you claimed he was sole importer of all those into Nigeria, now you claim he was just the sole importer to the north, whatever the case, give me evidence because Lafrage was a major cement dealer in Nigeria in the eighties and nineties and even till this time. Dangote only began to stand out in the Obasanjo era, when he went into manufacturing. His so called monopoly was mainly from Obasanjo who banned imports.

You can read more of this refutation of the common beer parlour talk and the complete refutation on...

the cablenigeria....ln defence of Aliko Dangote

But then the writer also forgets that higher profit margins is also factor of internal cost control measures. Dangote has been aggressive in reducing its cost of production adopting cheaper and more efficient power sources, the biggest cost in cement production.

In the banking industry, a look at the financial performance of Nigerian banks will show that cost to income ratio for GTBank is at a low of about 36.3 percent as at third quarter 2017 compared to 60 percent for some other banks operating in the same industry. Does it mean that GTBank is being given an unfair advantage in banking by the government?

Are Nigerians paying excessive prices for cement? Could we say Americans are paying excessive prices for a bottle of water? A comparative analysis of the cost of 1.5 litre of bottled water shows that while it cost an average of US$1.75 in the US, the same water would cost 83 cents or less in Nigeria. What determines price in a particular location are a combination of several factors including; demand elasticity, cost of production, risk of operations and investment, among other factors. The significant housing deficits in the country coupled with low availability of alternative building materials are factors that could easily influence demand for cement and consequently prices.

The writer quotes that the average price of a 50 kg bag of cement in Africa is US$9.57 compared to US$3.25 globally. The writer is using averages which can be deceptive since housing deficits and mode of building defer widely from country to country which affects the price of cement. For example, wood as a building material in the US is popular but that cannot be said of Nigeria. Also the housing deficit in the US is not as acute as it is in Nigeria. So the price of cement in the US and that of Nigeria cannot be compared. Current average price of a bag of Cement in Nigeria is about US$7.4 (using a I & E rate of N366 to the US$), which is even below the African average. Current price of a bag of cement comes to an average of US$100 per metric tonne which is still one of the cheapest in Africa.

Besides in a market where Dangote is the dominant player, has the writer wondered while any of the challenger cement brands have not sought to challenge that market dominance by crashing prices? Less dominant players should be the ones crashing prices to take away Dangote’s market share but that they are not significantly crashing prices is a reflection of the Nigerian market conditions and not any deliberate effort by Dangote to keep prices high in a market where he is not a monopoly.

Does Dangote have an exclusive license for limestone? Whether it is Limestone or Granite or Gold or Gemstones or Coal or Oil, all mining licenses are exclusive to the licence holder. Other cement manufacturers in Nigeria also have exclusive mining licences to the limestone, which they use for their manufacturing. So it is a normal business practice in the mining industry. The oil companies have exclusive mining licences to their oil wells just as those who discover gold, are given exclusive licenses to their find. If Dangote had exclusive license to all the limestone deposits in the country, then there would be no competitors in cement manufacturing in the country but that is not the case.

Taxes

The writer goes on the make a weighty allegation that Dangote Cement does not pay taxes in the country because of its clever use of the pioneer status scheme. First of all, it must be noted that the pioneer status scheme was not created because of Dangote. It has been in existence for 50 years, well before Dangote started cement manufacturing locally. However, it is absolutely wrong to say that Dangote has only paid N12 billion in taxes from 2010 to 2015, without quoting the source of such information.

It is wrong to assume that because a company enjoys pioneer status, it pays no other tax. Or that because Dangote Cement enjoys pioneer status, other Dangote businesses are not taxed. Besides Corporate Income Tax (CIT), which qualifies for pioneer status, there other taxes like withholding tax, and value added tax generated by Dangote Cement.

Dangote Sugar Refinery in the 10 years between 2006 and 2016 has paid N215 billion in corporate income taxes, value added taxes and withholding tax which is more than twice the N93 billion dividend paid for the period. This can be verified from the company’s annual reports.

Dangote Cement paid N1.13 billion in income tax in 2016. New investments in new assets for the same year stood at N136 billion of which N62.9 billion was spent in Nigeria. Dangote’s businesses are not only generating taxes but are also generating jobs that are leading to income taxes being paid to the government.

It is also surprising that the writer accuses Dangote of being a monopoly in the cement business in Nigeria. That is far from the being the case. There is no doubt that Dangote is a dominant player achieved by the share size of the investments it has made in the last few years and not because there were barriers to entry for other players. Dangote’s competitors include both local and global players, one of whom, Lafarge Africa, owned by LafargeHolcim, the largest company in the world, which has the capacity to match Dangote’s investment in the Cement sector if it chooses to. Dangote’s edge in the market is purely through aggressive marketing and quality of its cement in the market. A little study by the author will also reveal that the Nigerian cement market also has niche players in different states and regions. So while Dangote dominates a particular region, other cement players have their dominance in other regions of the market.

Interestingly, the write accuses Dangote of employing just 16,272 people. It may interest writer to know that the whole oil sector employs less number of people while the banking sector employs just about 50,000. In the light of the Nigerian situation, Dangote is perhaps the single biggest employer of labour in the country currently. This is besides the indirect jobs created across the country. Distributors of Dangote Cement are all over the country. At every point a house is being built, a minimum of five jobs are created based on product manufactured locally and not imported. The impact of this is significant for the overall economy.

Early in 2000, just a year after Nigeria transited to civilian rule, Dangote and his team had an inspirational visit to Brazil to study the emerging manufacturing sector in the country. Then, Dangote was mainly involved in trading, basically importing goods into the country to sell. But the trip to Brazil changed his perspective and he made a strategic decision to transit from a trading based business into a fully-fledged manufacturing operation. He realized that in a country like Nigeria where imports constitute the vast majority of consumed goods, a clear gap existed for a manufacturing operation that could meet the ‘basic needs’ of a vast and fast growing population.

He saw a huge potential in goods that could meet the daily needs of the average Nigerian. So he embarked on an ambitious construction programme, initially focused on the construction of flourmills, a sugar refinery and a pasta factory.

However, during the privatisation programme of the Federal Government in 2000, Dangote, seeing the potential in local manufacturing of cement in the country, successfully acquired the Federal Government shares in the then struggling Benue Cement Company (BCC) and began the construction of the Obajana cement plant which was commissioned in 2003. It is now the single largest cement plant in the world.

Dangote Cement has grown into a fully integrated cement company with operations in in Nigeria and 10 African countries with a combined capacity of 45.8 million metric tonnes and employing directly 16,272 employees and several more indirectly.

Dangote Cement’s current total production capacity in Nigeria from its three existing cement plants namely Obajana (13.3MMTPA), Ibese (12 MMTPA) and Gboko (4.0MMTPA) is 29.3MMTPA.

The Obajana Cement Plant (OCP) located in Kogi State is reputed to be the single largest cement plant in the world with a combined capacity of 13.3MMTPA.

Nigeria is now not only self-sufficient in Cement production but is also exporting to neighbouring West African countries of Niger, Togo and Ghana. A visit to the Seme border, and you will see Dangote Cement trucks carrying bags of cement across the border to Ghana.

Cement Manufacturers Association of Nigeria estimate that between 2003 and 2009, a six-year period, over US$8 billion was invested in local cement manufacturing as a result of the backward integration policy of the Federal Government. A good chunk of these investments was made by Dangote to expand production from zero in 2000 to 20 million metric tonnes by 2009. Nigeria became self-sufficient in cement production in 2012 and now has excess capacity.

Dangote is now listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), as the single largest firm controlling about 25 percent of market value at the point of listing.

In a recent article published by qz.com on 11 October, Dangote was wrongly alleged to have grown its cement empire through a cozy relationship with the government. The background on the backward integration policy of the Obasanjo administration has been given to understand the rational for the government’s initiative, which seem to have been lost on the writer of the qz article.

[b]Dangote has been able to build a cement empire, not on government funds or patronage but with private capital including personal funds, a heavy dose of debts and reinvestment of profits from his businesses taking advantage of a deliberate government policy that was not offered exclusively to him but to all businesses operating in the country. All over the world, that is how businesses are built.

Did Dangote enjoy any special favour while building his businesses? None that was not extended to any other business in the country. Obasanjo’s policy on backward integration was applicable to every Nigerian willing to take the risk of investing in a country notorious for policy reversals. Dangote took the plunge, believing that this is a risk worth taking and it has paid off not just for his business but also for the country. Perhaps, without making those significant investments, the country would be spending billions of scarce dollars on importation of bagged cement like it does importing PMS despite the abundance crude oil in the country.[/b]

Is Dangote making excessive profits in the cement business at the expense of Nigerians?

The article alleges that Dangote’s profit margins are well above industry average. This is largely true. But what the writer fails to take into consideration is the efficiency levels of Dangote Cement plants compared to that of other plants. Any expert in the cement manufacturing industry will tell you that the average age of a plant has significant impact on its efficiency. Also because the plants are more modern, they are also more expensive.

Most of Dangote’s plants are relatively new and so their efficiency levels give the company an advantage in terms of cost of production, which translates into higher than average margins. However, as anyone will tell you, this advantage reduces with time as the plants get older and as other companies also acquire more efficient plants and also the cost of acquisition gets depreciated over time. So it is not surprising that the EBITDA margins of Dangote Cement has dropped from a high of over 70 percent to 41.3 percent as at 2016 financial year.

sufferNsmiling:
This is why I say a lot of we nigerians are illiterates the person which has destroyed them destroyed their future destroyed our country is who we like because we are illiterates we do not know right from wrong. see Africa's richest man and what he did to nigeria to become rich nigerians like him. Stupidity of the highest order wait we nigeria.

How did Aliko Dangote actually make his fortune.

Aliko Dangote is just like all the rich Nigerians who have gone before him. His case and those of other Nigerians, including the late MKO Abiola is like “ kill a man and be labelled a murderer, but kill in thousands and become a conqueror”.

Corruption is identified by its beginning but the profit becomes legitimate at a point that no one dares to ask of the beginning again.

Aliko’s uncle supposedly gave a young graduate from one of the Islamic University in Cairo a starting capital. But was that it? I say an emphatic No! Aliko Dangote can not be ranked among the brightest five thousand Nigerians. He was not even a second class student at school.

But when you consider his origin and the type of politics-cum-business policies of the Military era, you do not need to wonder how Aliko’s “brilliance in business” earns him the title of the richest man in Africa.

Sole licensed importer of Sugar for over two decades; sole licensed importer of Cement for the building industries for decades; sole licensed importer of salt for another decade and similar other government -sanctioned monopoly in business, Aliko’s wealth is a classic illustration of how government patronage can influence wealth creation.

And having enjoyed such monopolies for several decades, (with an added Islamic endorsement by the Northern oligarchy), the rest is “brilliance and hard work” through setting up of industries all over the country to capitalise on the acquired wealth.

But the man is wise enough to always respond in cash to his constituencies. He gives back to any government in power and he is one of the biggest, but silent givers towards the Islamization of Nigeria.

Just like the late Chief MKO Abiola, he is wise enough NOT to bite the fingers that raise him up.

https://www.quora.com/How-did-Aliko-Dangote-actually-make-his-fortune

This is nigeria hero shame on us.

Again beer parlour talk, give me evidence to verify your claims that he was the sole importer of salt, sugar and cement at anytime, and whatever you say please don't mention lbeto.
l need facts and not forums else l would also post forums and blogs for you as my fact.
Either you have your facts or you admit you just repeat everything people say.

frer8:
Nairobi has a population of roughly 4m. 80% of it's people translates to about 3.2 m which isn't true! It seems the case for Nigeria is true!Nigeria has surpassed India in the number of it's citizens living below the poverty level

You said it seems the case of Nigeria is true, l also think 3.2 million Nairobians live in Slums, it seems so too. We'll keep going in circles until we decide to use our reason.

GERALD710:
If you are referring to the Kubwa Station,you have to be joking!!

Stop quoting me on discussions from way back, l don't have your time this morning.

frer8:
https://www.vanguardngr.com/2018/01/67-nigerians-live-poverty-line-presidential-aide/

I had that Nigeria has surpassed India in the number of people leaving below the poverty line? Is this true ?

l heard that 80% of People in Nairobi live in Slums, is this true?

GERALD710:
Morocco has oil as well .Kenya has not yet started exporting oil yet.

ls oil the only natural resource in the world? There are many countries in the world doing very well without oil. Besides there are other natural resources and Kenya is not short of them.

sufferNsmiling:
Why do you think nigeria is so backwards it is people like dangote looted nigeria dry from the 80s teal 2today the amount of money he sent abroad is 20 x what he owns today. He destroyed a lot of the future off nigerians people why you have in few billionaires in the country . the country is bone dry these are the people which destroyed alot of nigeria future important things in the 80s and 90s put 200 to 300 per cent interest on the thing. Now look at nigeria today.

Beer parlour talk, speak with facts and evidence.

Lol, this Jeff Koinange is damn funny mehn, watch this video guys. Kenyans and Nigerians should See this.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9i4ohZDQXs

frer8:
https://www.dailytrust.com.ng/germany-proposes-new-system-to-repatriate-30-000-illegal-nigerian-migrants-250698.html


Nigerians are running away from the GIANT OF AFRICA! How ironic?

Then there must be something wrong with Africa.

cooooooks:
Dangote keeps growing because the Nigerian government helps him monopolise every field he's in.

Same old worn out news.

Safiaa:
Never knew 23 and 25 are still kids lool.

Only in Nigeria.

Henzok:
How many matured pple have money to the level they have?

So to you, life is all about having money?

kikuyu1:
Really nigga! A working brain will tell you there's no way even 300 k people can cram into those single story structures. We've shown you repeatedly those figures are massively inflated by NGOs.
Why do you keep repeating this poo? We accept we have Kibera unlike you with your Makoko. Srsly why keep rehashing this Kibera poo?

lt's just to tell you how silly these reports are, just like you believe 140million Nigerians are extremely poor, others who take these reports as gospel would also believe this 80% figure living in slums, just like they would believe Eritrea is richer than Mexico as stated in some of these western reports.

Angelfrost:
Rich Pastors? Nonentities? Did you critically assess what you typed before posting? You should always choose your words with great care.

To Nigerians, simply being rich is all that matters, no wonder we are where we are, the mentality is so wrong.

Skepticus:


Rich pastors really don't care about the opinions of nonentities

So to you, being rich is simply the ultimate for a pastor right?

IamaNigerianGuy:
So this is your idea of success ?
Nigerians praise fraudsters, idolize spiritual conmen, hail thieving politicians.
This country is under a curse.

This is the problem with Nigeria, his idea of success is simply anyone with money.

Bryan88:
Luz all he has? Nigga u kiddin me? Well not wen properly invested and i need not remind u dat every capital without investment will surely finish. So, wotchu sayin?

Would you want others defraud you or your parents of the very last penny all in the name of investing? what would you invest with such kind of wealth? that is the key, do not do unto others what you would not want them to do unto you

dvkot:
Scam and Fraud cannot be erased, USA despite how good the country is people still engage in drug trafficking, scams and robbery

We must not be like USA. They have many problems too.

dvkot:
Your wisdom will increase, An average Nigerian hates when you are richer than him and if he is jealous and dont know the source of income, USA is bigger in all aspect of fraud and scam more than nigeria, but their media don't portray them like that, Nigeria is a messed up and country, till the economy get better fraud and scams cannot stop... i mean look at USA sef

Even if the economy gets better some would still resort to fraud and scam with one excuse or the other. l have seen rich kids get involved in this yahoo thing. The problem is greed and the worship of material things no matter how it is acquired.
The problem is ingrained in our society, the cancer has even eaten deep into many of our churches.

Dami12345:
Nope this is the real crap.
Okay fine yahoo boys are robbers, well so are out politicians, so is dangote, so are the boozelegging matters of American, so are the Bushes, the Vandavaults and the Rockefellers.

And this "innocent" people are the children of the colonial thieves who stole our country, tricked abacha into destroying our economy, bribed and manipulate and threatened him to killing the finest president we will ever have ; abiola mko. They destroyed Libia, ruined Iran and Afghan , took the balls off Saudi Arabia.

Need I go on, this is Karma so Shut the fuc up, cause my argument and your argument will not change this , I wish it would but without our country on track yahoo is only going to get bigger and bigger.

This is how some began by defending kidnapping of the white man, saying it is karma on the white man. Today, it is a great security threat across the nation. The truth is the Yahoo fraud is just like betting, it is addictive, when you make 1million you think you can also make 10million, and it goes on and on, when you can't get the white man any longer, you would turn to your own citizens or anybody, while you keep blaming politicians and others but yourself in order to justify your actions.

Bryan88:
d ans is not far fetched...1stly, cos u no get person 2 put u tru...in oda words, u no dey game. 2ndly, they re fucking rich and u re fuckin poor and that i call JEALOUSY!

lt is unfortunate that you think being rich is the ultimate in life, defrauding people to get rich doesn't bring out the best in you, getting rich is not my major problem but becoming wealthy, the rich man has money and that is it, but the wealthy man gets wealthy because he makes others wealthy.
A yahoo boy cannot be a wealthy man because he defrauds his neighbour and he also shall lose all he has.

sobmos:
We all know that yahoo yahoo is bad. It’s taking money from hard working people and destroying their lives,giving them emotional breakdowns.

But we have to look at it from another angle, I’m not in support of Yahoo, neither am I against it. I’m not against it because the Government has failed us the masses.

Yahoo is a way of liberating oneself from the shackles of poverty. I know several yahooboys that are employers of labor today. I know several yahooboys that are the breadwinner of their family.

I’m against yahooboys that scams locally, scamming your fellow Nigerians, I’m totally against that. If you must scam, scam the white folks.

I’m against yahooboys that goes to club and squanders thousands and millions of naira on drinks just to show that they’ve “arrived”. It doesn’t make any sense .

I know a yahooboy that owns several mobile phone outlets, several businesses, doesn’t attend night clubs and the night life is definitely not for him. He’s married with kids. This guy and several others relies on yahoo yahoo to survive .

If we scold yahooboys , let’s also remember the Nigerian economy,unfavorable standard of living, made the boys do what they do today.

They’re the lesser devils , instead of kidnapping , murder and armed robbery, these boys chose to scam the white people.

If I’m to choose between an armed robber and a yahoo boy . I’ll gladly go for the lesser devil( yahoo yahoo).

While l may agree to most of your points, l think it is pertinent to bring to your notice that l have also seen rich kids in my undergraduate days go into the Yahoo business and this has nothing to do with Government or politicians.
Yes the politicians have played a huge role in contributing to this epidemic but then there have been a gradual dissolution of our value system in this country. Greed is also a problem, and the fact that the society glorifies material things above anything else, even our religious houses have this cancer.
Here on Nairaland, the moment you criticize a celebrity, you'd be reminded quickly that they are making their money, so it seems money is all that matters to the average Nigerian youth and not the effort you put into your work to stand out.

14teenK:
I am not in anyway justifying fraud, Don't get me wrong, am just trying to point out that no sin is greater than another, you can't masturbate in the confines of your home and castigate a thieft.

Masturbation is your business, even if it's a sin, it destroys you and you alone with it's effects, the Yahoo destroys you and also completely corrupts society. lt affects others on a large scale.
Let me put it this way, if l masturbate continuously, l'll get to the point where l begin to notice l ejaculate easily or my erection gets weaker. lf l love myself, then l'll stop by reducing the rate at which l read the romance section of Nairaland, by not reading or watching porn, by going after women and changing my tactics, or at least redirecting my mind to new passions. I'd be easily forced to do this because of my negative experience of masturbation.
With the Yahoo epidemic, you make your money and it hardly affects you personally, rather the effect is more paramount on others, and on the society at large and this directly breaks the Golden rule( do not do unto others what you do not want them to do unto you).
You also would not care about the image of Nigeria in the light of opportunities for Nigerians who go abroad because it may not affect you directly.
So while l agree that sin is sin, the Yahoo epidemic is more dangerous to society in the light of all these.

Omololu2121:
fooliish foool,Nigeria is more worst than Kenya,in fact is an insult to start comparing Kenya, Benin republic and Togo to Nigeria. A friend that imported some goods into Nigeria had to pay some bribes before his goods can be cleared after 34 days.

A retired warrant officer that retired from the army,#1 has not been giving to him as pension,this is a man that has a wife and 3 kids.

A country where is president has to travel to another country to receive treatment and go for checkup .

Well iddiots like you can keep on defending and arguing on bullshit.

Bla Bla Bla Bla Bla. There is always something to complain about.

Omololu2121:
who is this dirty iidiot quoting me

Where did you crawl out from

Keep comparing trash mumu,no time for useless internet argument.
A country that is finding it hard to even protect her people, Fulani herdsmen will just go to a village,kill the people and burn their farmland and houses,that's the country you're all here arguing about.

Swines!!!

See how your brain is paining you? l ask you again, who is compelling you to argue for Nigeria or stay in Nigeria? You can even tear your useless passport for all l care.
Learn to call a spade a spade, Nigeria is bad and so is Kenya and all of the shithole Africa, though the likes of Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, are coming up strong. lf you are smart, you'll see that Nigerians here are ready to wash the Nigerian dirty linens in public and state things the way they are, but the Kenyans are hippocritical and that's why I'm here, l hate hippocracy, so if you don't like what we do here, you can crawl back to the hole you came from or quietly defend your Kenyan paradise.