571,000 tonnes of rice were stopped by the FG from entering Nigeria

On Monday, the Federal Government announced that 571,000 tonnes of foreign rice warehoused in neighbouring countries were being targeted for the Nigerian market for the Christmas and New Year season, but vowed to stop their entry.
It also stated that Nigeria recently took delivery of 110 rice mills in its bid to enhance local production so as to commence the exportation of white rice from next year.
The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, who disclosed these in Abuja, stated that some of Nigeria’s neighbours, particularly the Republic of Benin, were not moving goods within the region as required by relevant treaties.
He, however, stated that the Federal Government would henceforth check all illegal movements of food and non-food items into Nigeria from the neighbouring countries.
Ogbeh said, “What they do is that they import goods, station themselves at our borders and then smuggle them into Nigeria. For instance, the Republic of Benin doesn’t eat parboiled rice. They eat white rice. But all the rice that comes from the borders into Nigeria is parboiled.
“I have a list now of all the ships that left Thailand in the last seven weeks and they’ve arrived; 571,000 tonnes of rice waiting to enter Nigeria for Christmas. But we won’t allow that. We have to review the treaty in the region, because we are at the losing end. Why are we doing this? It is because this rice is not definitely grown in the Republic of Benin.”
He added, “They bring tomato paste and chicken not produced in the Republic of Benin and because the Nigerian market is so huge, that they want to exploit it. But no economy out of sympathy should damage our own and we should not out of sentiment allow anybody to do things to us, which we can’t do to them.
“When Dangote was trying to ship his cement through the Republic of Benin to Togo, it took him one year to persuade them.”
Ogbeh reiterated that the country would start exporting rice from next year, as he stated that 110 mills had been acquired to make this a reality.
He said, “We can make it happen. We have just brought in 110 rice mills of different capacities. Some can do 100 tonnes, others 50, 40, 20 and 10 tonnes. We are going to give them to cooperative organisations and rice millers all over the country to enhance their milling capacities.
“We have another 12 rice mills to come in maybe next year so that the milling capacity is strong enough for us and we too will begin to export white rice to West Africa.”
On the issue of possible famine in Nigeria from January next year, the minister stated that the government was prepared and promised that the country would not experience such.
The minister stated, “We want to put it quite clearly that there is no danger of famine in the country, because the government will not allow that to happen. We are already taking steps to make sure that Nigerians don’t go through any such harrowing experience. There has been some panic over the massive purchase of grains from many of the big grain producing fields in some parts of the country.
“This fear was heightened by emirs and chiefs in the North, who met with us on Tuesday last week and raised the same anxiety. It is true that for the first time in our history, we are witnessing an extra-ordinary purchase of our grains from the West, North and Central Africa. We are even getting demands from as far as Namibia; they are asking for grains in large quantities of up to 37,000 tonnes of maize.”

100 million Nigerians living in poverty, Dangote laments

The President, Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has said that more than 100 million out of the country’s estimated population of 187 million are wallowing in poverty.

He told participants at the Executive Course No. 38, 2016 of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies, Kuru, near Jos, Plateau State, that the situation was unacceptable to him given Nigeria’s abundant resources, according to a statement made available on Sunday.

Delivering a paper entitled: ‘Promotion of local manufacturing and poverty reduction in Nigeria: The private sector experience and policy options’, he said, “It is a curious paradox that Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil producer, and the largest economy on the continent, also has one of the highest levels of poverty.

“It is estimated that more than 100 million out of a population of 187 million Nigerians live below the poverty line.”

Quoting a United Nations report, Dangote said youth unemployment had risen to 42 per cent this year, with many graduates roaming the streets of major cities such as Lagos, Kano, Abuja and Port Harcourt in search of elusive white-collar jobs, while for some who were employed, their situation could best be described as under-employment, as they were being underutilised and poorly paid.

This development, according to him, has serious security implications, as evidenced by the high rate of social ills plaguing the nation.

“The spate of kidnappings, intermittent vandalism of petroleum pipelines in the Niger Delta, and the protracted insurgency in the North-East are all fuelled, to a large extent, by the high level of endemic poverty in the country,” he stated.

Dangote pointed out that the current economic recession had further worsened the situation, as the government continued to record dwindling revenues, thus making it increasingly difficult for it to fulfil some of its obligations to the people.

He said, “Coupled with this, the activities of insurgents in the North-East have also affected the level of poverty in that part of the country. It is estimated that there are over 2.4 million Internally Displaced Persons in the region. It will take billions of naira to rebuild the North-East and fully re-settle the victims of the insurgency.”

(PUNCH)

Dangote sacks 36 expatriates, 12 Nigerians

The current recession rocking the Nigerian economy has hit one of the biggest employers of labour in the country outside of the government as the Dangote Group, belonging to Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, has fired 48 members of staff.

Our correspondents gathered that those sacked were made up of 36 expatriate and 12 Nigerian workers from the group’s headquarters and one of the subsidiaries, Dangote Cement Plc.

Though no official of the group was willing to speak on the matter on Sunday, one of our correspondents gathered from highly placed sources that the decision to sack the workers was not unconnected with the current high cost of running business in the country occasioned by the unavailability of foreign exchange and the unprecedented hike in the naira to dollar exchange rate.

It was further gathered that the huge amounts in foreign currencies being paid to the expatriate workers had become a burden on Dangote due to the steady depreciation in the value of the naira and the difficulties of raising enough dollars.

Consequently, the industrialist, according to sources, has decided to replace the expatriates with Nigerians, who have acquired the requisite experience on the job, as paying them in naira will be less problematic.

For the affected Nigerians, it was gathered that most of them had disciplinary issues, which made it easy for the group to do away with their services.

When contacted on Sunday, the Group Head, Corporate Communications, Dangote Group, Tony Chiejina, said he could not speak on the development.

However, in a letter signed by the President/Chief Executive Officer, Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, dated Thursday, October 20, 2016,the firm stated that it was constrained to take the “tough” decision as economic factors had affected the cost of production.

The letter, which was titled: ‘Recent Retirement Exercise’, however, appreciated those affected for their contributions to the growth of the group.

The letter read in part, “This year has been a very challenging year for us as a business. The unavailability of foreign exchange coupled with an unprecedented hike in the exchange rate has resulted in increased costs across the organisation.

“This called for a proper review and adjustment of our costs across board to ensure efficiency and effectiveness in the deployment of our factors of production in a bid to eliminate redundancies that we know exist, which resulted in some tough decisions, which means losing staff, including some of our colleagues.

“On Friday, October 14, 2016, we began the process of staff cutbacks as it is imperative to review our human capital deployment for the required cutbacks that would ensure efficiency and eliminate redundancies in the allocation of human resources.

“This first phase of this exercise involved the cutback of 36 expatriate staff across the Dangote Cement Plc and Dangote Industries Limited, and 12 local staff members in Dangote Industries Limited.”

As an organisation with international operations, the group promised that it would continue to review and restructure its human capital deployment to ensure “optimal allocation of skill sets and size of the workforce each function requires.”

The group urged the workers to shun lateness, improper dressing and other unsavoury behaviours in the workplace.

Bloomberg had in its latest ‘Billionaire Index’ reported that Dangote had lost $5.4bn of his fortune this year due to the fall in the value of the naira and the decision of the Central Bank of Nigeria to ration dollars to stem huge capital outflows in the wake of Nigeria’s worst economic crisis.

Dangote had recently urged the Federal Government to sell off the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas Company and other dormant but huge capital-generating enterprises and reinvest the proceeds in the economy to bring the country out of the current economic recession before the end of the fourth quarter.

Dansa Foods Nigeria Limited, which claims to be a member of the Dangote Group, has reportedly been unable to pay its workers for the past six months.

The company is being run by Alhaji Sani Dangote, a brother of Aliko, who is the Executive Chairman, with Aliko’s shares embedded in the firm.

Multiple sources in the Dangote Group claimed that Dansa Foods was not part of the group but was an independent company owned and run by Aliko’s brother.

However, in a statement announcing its participation at the just concluded Lagos International Trade Fair, the group listed some of its subsidiaries as Dangote Sugar Refinery, Dangote Agrosacks, NASCON Allied Industries Plc (Dangote Salt), Dangote Rice Limited, Dangote Cement Plc and Dansa Foods Limited.

It was reported that the company, which produces Dansa Juice and other goods, had laid off more than half of the workforce following dwindling sales and high cost of production caused by high exchange rate of the naira.

It was gathered that the company had suspended the production of Dansa Juice and other products, and was only producing Mowa Bottle Water.