We have a ‘once in a century ‘ opportunity with the Dangote Refinery, but it seems we are doing our best not to take full advantage.
I’m not talking about the IPO. I’m talking about what Alhaji Aliko’s trusted wingman, Edwin, glibly mentioned amidst all the excitement surrounding the IPO.
I am convinced they chose their moment, hoping it would get lost amidst the din of the SEC bell. I have studied the Dangote Thought perhaps more than I did my college lessons.
I predicted years ago he’d go into shipping, so I wasn’t surprised about that; I’m, in fact, happy
What I am not happy about is that he’s ordering 1800 ships from China. One. Thousand. Eight. Hundred Average gross tonnage of 40,000.
The total tonnage of that 1800 of those ships is 72,000,000 tonnes. That is more than the tonnage of some serious maritime nations.
We want to hand that to China?
There’s no single shipbuilding company that wouldn’t set up operations here if you gave them a contract for 100 of those ships with the proviso that they build here.
That’s the spirit of the Cabotage Act.
If you were to build just 900 of those vessels here, not only would that irreversibly transform shipbuilding here, you would transform several ancillary, incidental, and adjacent industries.
We are talking about hundreds of thousands of direct and indirect jobs.
Alhaji Aliko said he wants to be remembered as the person that Industrialized Africa.
Now is the time to back that up!
Adakole Ejegbudu
