Ndubuisi Francis in Abuja
Chairman of the Nigeria Exchange Group (NGX), Alhaju Umaru Kwairanga, has urged East African investors to embrace the vision of billionaire industrialist, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, by largely relying on locally-sourced capital rather than expensive and unstable foreign loans.
Kwairanga spoke during a high-level investment engagement at the Nairobi Stock Exchange (NSE), Kenya recently.
The NGX Group Chairman underlined the transformational impact of the Dangote Refinery in Nigeria, and expressed confidence that a similar one planned for Kenya will have the same positive impact on the whole of East Africa.
He is also taking that even further by relying to a large extent on locally sourced capital rather than expensive and fickle foreign loans.
He said: “We have already seen the transformational impact of the Dangote Refinery in Lagos Nigeria and I am confident that the one planned for Kenya will have the same positive impact on the whole of East Africa.
“He (Aliko Dangote) is also taking that even further by relying to a large extent on locally sourced capital rather than expensive and fickle foreign loans.
“I invite our East African investors to key into this vision and give leaders like this the capital and support to take Africa to another higher level of development.
“You will be making a good investment decision for yourself and for future generations of Africans.”
He recalled that in recent years, African leaders such as President William Ruto of Kenya and Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, advocated for Africa to come together and work towards solving its developmental challenges.
That call, he noted, is being met in many practical ways by visionary entrepreneurs like Alhaji Dangote.
“In Nigeria, we have seen how he has led Nigeria’s turnaround from a cement importing nation to one that is self sufficient in cement and even exports the product.
“Now he is doing the same in fertilizer and petroleum products and spreading that vision of an industrialised African continent led by African visionaries across the continent,” he said.