Founder and President of Dangote Industries Limited, Aliko Dangote, at the weekend, pledged to construct a hostel valued at ₦550 million for the students at Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Imo State.
He equally donated N25 million to the students of the institution via their Student Union Government.
Dangote was at the institution to deliver a public lecture on Enterprise, Leadership and Service to Humanity. The hostel, when completed, will help to alleviate the shortage of accommodation for students of FUTO.
In his presentation, the foremost industrialist encouraged the students with the history of his humble beginning in business as a distributor of bagged cement and other items. He said that despite making money by trading in commodities, he decided to embark on a backward integration process, producing locally those goods he used to import.
He stated that importing finished products into Nigeria is equivalent to importing poverty, inflation and unemployment while exporting raw materials. Importation of finished products creates jobs, prosperity and development in the exporting countries, he added.
According to him, the decision to embrace manufacturing is to create jobs and add value to the raw materials that were usually exported. He said a major key in industrialisation is looking inwards, that investors in the industrial sector should come from the citizens. He added that he refuses to invest in Nigeria and Africa; no foreign investor will be willing to stake their funds here.
Drawing examples from Asia, he said, ‘Asian economies powered by Asians, not foreign investment. They are the ones who invested in their countries. They did not wait for foreigners to come and develop their economies.’
Turning to the students, he said Nigerian youths are endowed with an innovative spirit and could hold their own anywhere around the globe. He stated that many fresh graduates of engineering who were recruited and trained by Dangote Refinery and Fertiliser have been poached by companies in the Gulf region who treat them as expatriates.
