Alhaji Dr. Aliko Dangote (GCON), President, Dangote Group |
The Chief
Strategy Officer, Dangote Group, Dr.
Abdul Muktar, has disclosed the group’s intention to embark on $3 billion
project for a 540-kilometre pipeline from Niger Delta to the Lekki free trade
zone in Lagos.
Dr. Muktar,
who disclosed this at the annual roundtable session of the Lagos Chamber of
Commerce and Industry’s (LCCI) Power Sector Group said, the project, which
would come on board by the first quarter of 2019 aims at transporting three
billion cubic metres of gas per day. He further noted that to address the issue
of pipeline vandalism, which is the major challenge faced by the energy sector,
the pipelines would be offshore.
According to him, the relevance of gas power cannot be over emphasized, as lack of it can cascade into manufacturing issues and subsequent national economic concerns. Dr. Muktar, who described the project as a game changer in the industry, advanced that apart from the scarcity of forex in recent times, power has primarily been the major challenge faced by the manufacturing sector, “and the problem we also have in the power sector is unavailability of gas.”
The Dangote
strategy officer cited that only 25 per cent of the 250 million cubic feet of
gas needed to run the Dangote cement plant per day is available, “this has made the company resort to coal and is not too
environmental friendly.” The project he said is necessary at this time
because the jittery nature of the nation’s economy with another negative Gross
Domestic Product (GDP) of -2.24 per cent recently released by the National
Bureau of Statistics makes it three quarters of negative growth, which is
disheartening. He added that such growth had only been recorded in the country
29 years ago and that makes it critical. The oil
sector, he remarked shrunk by 22.1 per cent and for Nigeria to recover from the
recession, the need to focus on manufacturing is paramount.
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