We do not get special incentives or waivers from govt, says Dangote

Dangote Group says contrary to popular opinion, the conglomerate does not get any special waiver, incentive or protection from the Nigerian government.
“President Obasanjo called us together and said, ‘Nigeria is the biggest cement importer. We have the lines in Nigeria and fuel is available. Let us try to be sufficient in cement production’. We told him, ‘If we set up a plant, somebody can have license to import tomorrow and then kill the plant’. He assured us that he would ban cement importation. By the time we were completing our plant at Obajana, Yar’Adua came in. He allowed importation of bag cement. More than 20 million tonnes import licenses were given as against seven million the previous year. If our business had been dependent on government protection, concession, tax waivers, benefits, we would have been ruined,” said Edwin Devakumah, group executive director, Dangote Group, while addressing journalists in Lagos.
Dangote Group is Nigeria’s most diversified conglomerate, with interests in cement, flour, sugar, pasta and construction, among many others.
The group controls over 70 percent of the cement industry and market in the country, with plants in Senegal, Ethiopia, Zambia, Tanzania, Ghana, Congo, South Africa, and several other African countries.
The business, owned by Africa’s richest man, is investing close to $2 billion in developing sugar plantations and production plants in Numan, Adamawa; Niger and other states in the country.
Dangote’s Obajana plant, located in Kogi State, is seen as one of the largest cement plants in the world with a combined capacity of 10.25 million metric tonnes.
Dangote’s competitors often say the group gets special import concessions or waivers, alleging that the government deliberately fashions policies to favour the conglomerate. Others accuse the group of bulldozing into industries to monopolise them.
But Devakumah rubbished the rumour, saying that any incentive available to Dangote Group was also up for grabs by competitors.
“Whatever is available, our competitors are also entitled to get. If we have a pilot status in cement, anybody in business can also get it. It’s an open market and people were there before us,” he said.
He stated that some of Dangote’s competitors had been in business for long but failed to invest meaningfully in the country, wondering why people would raise eye brows even when there was no need for such.
He said the president of the group Aliko Dangote had made sacrifices to grow the manufacturing sector and the entire economy, selling his aircraft and house in Atlanta, United States, to expand his business and bring more opportunities for Nigerians.
“We do not have any extra benefits. The president (Aliko Dangote) has sacrificed a lot to grow his business,” he stated.
On the rumour that the group is getting a 10-year tax rebate for its involvement in Apapa-Oworonsoki road, the group executive director said it was completely untrue.
He said the structure of the 35 kilometre road, whose bidding was yet to start, was such that the group would construct the road with its funds/resources and then recoup the money in three years against future tax payments.
He said by the time exchange rate differentials were factored in, the group might not even recoup more than half of what it would spend.
Devakumar said Dangote Group was repairing Apapa-Ijora road free of charge, in association with Flour Mills, using its construction company called AG Dangote, stressing that the government was not paying any money.

ODINAKA ANUDU