Africa’s richest man and founder,
Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has raised the alarm over rising threats
to Nigeria’s oil and gas fortunes owing to the rising spate of terrorism
in the country.
He said the windows of opportunities
created for Nigeria and other countries in the region by the worsening
instability in the Middle East, North Africa and Ukraine, were being
undermined by the region’s own woes linked to instability as a result of
terrorist tendencies.
Dangote said this in an address at the
All Convention Luncheon at the 32nd International Conference and
Exhibition of the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists in
Lagos.
The address which was made available to
our correspondent on Thursday, quoted the business mogul as saying, “For
Nigeria and the Gulf of Guinea region, the challenge posed by the shale
oil and gas revolution and the shift in supply dynamics has only been
ameliorated by the worsening instability in the Middle East, North
Africa and Ukraine which has created a window of opportunity for the
region’s oil.
“Unfortunately, this window of
opportunity is currently being threatened by the region’s own increasing
instability as a result of the terrorist activity in Nigeria and
political instability in other parts of the region such as Sudan.”
o address these challenges, he said Nigeria and the Gulf of Guinea region must increase local processing and consumption.
“This has been a goal of the Nigerian
Government for many years,” he said, but added that progress had been
impeded by lack of investment in the downstream petroleum sector as well
as an outdated policy and regulatory environment for the oil and gas
sector.
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