Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has revealed how a candid conversation with billionaire businessman Aliko Dangote led to the birth of Nigeria’s cement industry revolution.
Speaking at the Bauchi State Investment Summit on Tuesday, Obasanjo recounted how Dangote initially told him that importing cement was far more profitable than producing it locally.
According to the former president, the business mogul had approached him with a request: to make cement production in Nigeria profitable enough to justify investing in it.
Obasanjo said, “I asked him, do you want an honest answer? He said yes. Then he told me it’s more profitable for him to import cement than to produce it. That was an honest answer.”
Curious about how to change the situation, Obasanjo pressed further. “I asked, what can I do to make you produce cement? He said, tie my importation of cement to my production of cement. My head got it,” Obasanjo explained.
The former president said he immediately directed his then Minister of Industry, who also had a background in the private sector, to work out the details and facilitate Dangote’s entry into cement manufacturing.
That decision, Obasanjo noted, became a turning point that helped transform Nigeria from a major cement importer into one of Africa’s leading producers today.
Comments