Africa’s richest man and the president of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote has reportedly backed Nigeria’s decision to close its borders with West African neighbours.
Since last year, the West African giant closed its border with Benin, Niger and Cameroon arguing that the decision is in the country’s national interest.
Nigerian officials said the move was to increase local agricultural production, curb influx or substandard goods and prevent the smuggling of weapons and other vices into the country.
But the decision has had devastating effects on neighbouring countries whose traders are counting losses as truckloads of produce remain locked up at the border.
The ECOWAS Parliament has even called for the reopening of the borders describing the closure as running contrary to ECOWAS Protocols.
Although Nigeria promised to review the move at the end of last month, it is still yet to signal any willingness to open the borders.
In a statement on Thursday, Dangote said the border closure policy was the best for Nigeria’s economy at this point in time.
He rejected claims that the policy contributed greatly to the drop in Dangote Cement’s profitability for the year 2019.
Although his statement revealed that “export sales were affected by the border closure in the second half of 2019.”
“In 2020, I believe Dangote Cement will see an increase in profitability in pan-Africa driven by higher volumes and further efficiency improvements,” the statement added.
Source: Africafeeds.com
