Nothern governors not doing enough to end poverty in the region- Dangote

Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote on Wednesday said the North will continue to remain poor, except its state governments close the development gap between the North and the South.

Dangote, who rolled out his group’s investment plans in the North and Nigeria, said with conducive atmosphere provided by the state governments, the private sector would address the country’s unemployment.

The Kano state born businessman who has some harsh words for northern governors for not doing enough to end poverty in the region, spoke at the fourth edition of the Kaduna Investment Summit (KadInvest 4.0) in Kaduna.

Dangote said, “Nigeria is ranked at 157th out of 189 countries on the human development index. While the overall socio-economic condition in the country is a cause for concern, the regional disparities are in fact very alarming.

“In the North Western and North Eastern parts of Nigeria, more than 60 per cent of the population lives in extreme poverty. It is instructive to know that the 19 Northern states, which accounts for over 54 per cent of Nigeria’s population and 70 per cent of its landmass, collectively generate only 21 per cent of the total subnational IGR in the year 2017.

“Northern Nigeria will continue to fall behind if the respective state governments do not move to close the development gap. And that is why we are always saying that, the biggest challenge that we have and what we have been praying for is to have 10 governors like Mallam Nasir El-Rufai to move the northern Nigeria forward.”

According to him, closing the gap requires multi years investment, and government will not be able to raise the required capital funding, only the private sector can raise the capital to fund the level of investment that this country needs. Therefore, government must create the conducive environment that will trigger a huge inflow of private capital into attractive sectors of the economy.

He continued: “Private investment will create jobs and will ameliorate the twin problem of poverty and unemployment. As more people are gainfully employed, you will witness a very sharp decline in some of the disturbing social vices prevalent in our society, especially among the youths.”

While urging other northern states to emulate Kaduna State Government in the investment drive, Dangote said aside the over $500 million investment that El-Rufai’s government has attracted to Kaduna, Dangote Group is partnering Peugeot of France and the state government to establish multi-billion naira automobile assembly.