‘I Am Not Interested In BuyingNLNG Even If Government SellsIt On Credit’ – Dangote

Aliko Dangote, president of of Dangote Group, has dismissed that
he is planning to buy one of Nigeria’s national assets, the Nigeria
Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG).
Dangote noted this while speaking to THISDAY reacting to
criticism that have trailed his advocacy for the sale of national
assets.

In an interview with CNBC Africa, the billionaire had said the
government would be able to raise between $12 billion and $15
billion from the sale of the company.

“If I had challenges in my company, I would not hesitate to sell
assets, to remain afloat, to get to the better times, because it
doesn’t make any sense for me to keep any assets and then
suffocate the whole organisation,” he had said.

“The African Finance Corporation… it can fetch them $800 million
easily. My own suggestion before was that they should even sell
100 percent of NLNG. I don’t think government should be in any
business of investing in sectors of LNG.

“A company like that, with earnings of $1.5 billion on the average,
they should get anywhere between $12 billion and $15 billion.”
The comment had generated reactions, with some saying the
billionaire was interested in buying the company.
But Dangote waved aside the criticisms, saying he offered the
suggestions as “a true Nigerian who really wants the issues about
the economy to be sorted out”.

“You know the issue, once your reserves are low, the banks,
entrepreneurs, including external forces, would definitely attack
your currency. They would speculate on your currency,” he said.
“We all know that the exchange rate of almost N500 to the dollar is
not a true reflection of the value of the currency – the naira cannot
be almost N500 to the dollar!

“But you see, if this thing is not handled properly, it can get out of
hand. It can get to N600 to the dollar, or even N700 to the dollar.
“But the issue is, why did I suggest that we should sell some of
the assets? I know the touchy one is the NLNG. I want to make it
categorically clear that even if the government is selling NLNG on
credit, I am not interested in buying.

“I don’t have any interest in NLNG and I will not buy it. It is not a
business that I want to invest in. It is a mature business; that is
what people don’t understand.

“You see, we should have invested heavily in all these Brass LNG,
Olokola LNG, etc, when former President Olusegun Obasanjo
started work on the projects, but we missed the opportunity.

“Today, you have massive LNG projects that have been done by
Qatar, Australia and the United States is also exporting. But right
now, all the gas that we have is even in the ground. Even
Mozambique has a massive amount of gas and also Tanzania, and
they are nearer to the markets than we are.

“So, if somebody is even going to invest in LNG, he would go to
those areas and invest there and not here in Nigeria, because the
investment here is daunting. So my own suggestion is that even if
we must sell, it doesn’t have to be 100 per cent of our interest in
NLNG.”

Culled - Nigerian monitor