The President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has lauded the decision
of the Federal Government to reconstruct the failed Apapa-Wharf road.
With
its grim state serving as an embarrassment to the country, there is
also a huge loss of about N140 billion to the government on a weekly
basis.
Dangote who spoke to select media men yesterday, said:
“The economy loses more than N20 billion daily. It affects businesses
across the country. All our operations in the hinterland in Ilorin, in
Kano are operating at 40 per cent maximum capacity.”
Lamenting
the state of roads in the country, Dangote said: “Today, there is no
linkage road going from South West to the North. You have to go all the
way through Ajaokuta, Obajana, Lokoja and you have to go by that
uncompleted road Obasanjo started 13 years ago.‘’
Commenting on his
resolve to be personally involved in the Apapa- Wharf road
reconstruction, he said: “More than 60 per cent of our country’s import
and exports come through the port and we leave it unattended. That is
why we started on our own. Flour Mills said they will join us, but now
government changed the design because they want all the cables and pipes
underground and to have a more robust solution.”
To help in bringing
the cost down, he explained that he forced his company to do it at a
zero profit. According to him, “Both Dangote and Flour Mills are pumping
in over N2.5 billion for the 2 kilometres double lane on each side
making a total of 4 kilometres.”
He explained that the biggest job
“is drainage because that is what is destroying the road. We will make
sure this problem is sorted out once and for all. This thing should not
be allowed to happen. We started discussion with the government over a
year ago and we are happy that we have been given the opportunity to
finally fix it.”
The Federal Government last weekend handed over the
troubled road to Dangote Industries Limited and Flour Mills of Nigeria
Plc. (FMN) for immediate reconstruction with concrete overlay.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed by the FG, DIL, NPA and the FMN.
The
Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, signed the
agreement for the handover of the road, on behalf of the Federal
Government, while the Managing Director, NPA, Hadiza Usman, and Joseph
Makoju, honorary advisor to Aliko Dangote, president, Dangote Group, and
Gbedebo, signed for their respective organisations.
The three
organisations are embarking on the project as part of their corporate
social responsibility (CSR) to Apapa, where they all do business.
The
construction work to be handled by AG Dangote, a civil construction
company, and joint venture between Dangote Group and AG of Brazil, would
utilise concrete slabs as against asphalt, common with road
construction in this part of the world.
