First Focus Magazine

High Interest Rate An Impediment To Industrialisation - Dangote

The president of the Dangote Group of Companies, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has expressed dismay over the high interest rates charged by commercial banks in Nigeria. Speaking during a press interview with a group of journalists, the richest man in Africa said Nigeria would never experience industrialisation with the high interest rates charged by commercial banks in the country.

Alhaji Dangote emphasised that companies established in Nigeria can never compete with their foreign counterparts as a result of insufficient funds to do business, and this has increased the level of unemployment in the country, as over forty million youths are unemployed. He stated that the private sector is designed to create jobs and also increase the GDP, but the reverse is the case as the Central Bank of Nigeria is making things very difficult for the private sector, which has adversely increased poverty in the country.

He added that the Central Bank of Nigeria is an impediment to industrial growth as its policies do not encourage the private sector to make profit and expand production. Consequently, 80% of consumables that ought to have been produced locally are being imported into the country; whenever we import goods into the country we import poverty, unemployment and hunger.

He explained that Nigeria as a country cannot feed itself as we import food items into the country worth over six trillion annually; as a result of high interest rates charged by commercial banks, farmers do not have resources to expand production, while insecurity is another challenge militating against food production.

Alhaji Dangote urged President Tinubu to retire all the management staff of the Central Bank of Nigeria and appoint fresh personnel who will introduce new ideas to enhance industrialisation in the country, reduce interest rates and change the narrative so that indigenous companies would be able to compete globally. He maintained that the CBN is a hindrance to industrialisation and is not helping the current administration to succeed; it has only increased inflation, unemployment and poverty.