The Chairman of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote has called on African countries to tap into the vast natural resources the continent is blessed with so as to deepen intra-African trade in the continent and grow the economies.
Dangote who made the remark on Wednesday at the ongoing Nigeria International Petroleum Summit in Abuja, also charged Nigeria to leverage on growing demands in consumption of Petroleum Resources by adopting technology in refineries to ensure competitiveness.
“Our refining technology must take into consideration clean and renewable energy as well as grow with global technology. Indeed, Africa must be prepared for the next industrial revolutions” he enthused.
The business mogul who was represented by the Technical Consultant of Dangote Group, Babajide Soyebi, said that, “Nigeria must improve its refining assets,due largely to its strategic location in Africa and must position rightly for exports of Petroleum products”.
He also stated that transforming the strategic gulf of Guinea into a Global hub for Petroleum trade is very important and Nigeria must play the leading role in that regard.
While speaking on how Africa could explore trade advantages,he remarked, “Africa must develop the continent using its vast natural resources and huge potentials. It must begin to consume what it produces and improve its intra-African trade.
“Africa must build electricity capacity to empower growth and development; connect with modern transportation system to facilitate continental movement of goods. We must improve refining margins through technological integration and add more value through Petro-chemical industries among others” he added.
You would recall that Dangote is currently building a 650, 000 barrels per day capacity refinery in Lagos,which is expected to contribute immensely to 51.3 million litres per day growing consumption of Premium Motor Spirit.
Statistics show that intra-African Trade is currently put at $1.3 billion, which some analysts say is still abysmally low given the level of global companies situated and doing different kind of business operations in the continent.
