Aliko Dangote, Chief executive officer and chairman of Dangote Industries Limited, has said that the devaluation of Naira created the biggest mess for the company in 2023.
Speaking at the annual general meeting of Dangote Sugar Refinery, Dangote said this affected lots of companies in the country.
He said;
“We are doing whatever it takes to make sure that at the end of the day, we will be paying dividends because if you look at our dividends last year, it was almost 50 percent more so we will try and get out of the mess.
“The biggest mess created was actually the devaluation of the naira from N460 to N1,400. You can see almost 97 percent of the companies, especially in food and beverages businesses, none of them will pay dividends this year for sure but, we will try and get out of it as soon as possible.
“We want to see that at the end of the day, no matter how small, we will be able to pay some dividends, especially if there is a rebound of the naira.”
His speech however triggered some controversial reactions from social media users.
Reactions:
One of the users ( name withheld) wrote: “Haha! Even Dangote that supported this Government is complaining. No sound economist would have advised for subsidy removal and Naira devaluation in the same short period. Your presido was not well informed and was rushing to please IMF. Subsidy should have been removed only when Dangote refinery has started dispensing to local market then the pressure will reduce on dollar demand for fuel purchase. Then you can calculate how to unpeg the Naira. If that was done then it won’t have even gone up to 1,900. We currently are being ruled by people with no clue of proper economic management”.
Similarly, someone else wrote: “Hehehe that was a very uncalled for policy knowing fully well, or maybe they do not know, that Nigeria do not have even up to date market forces that could compete or irresistible market forces that could stand behind tge Naira in the international economy. Having made that mistake their continous rule of the thumb policies and decisions coupled with improper supervision and evaluation making the economy environment worse and that’s why inflation keeps rising by the day, cost of living higher than ever. Now the new one is considering increase of electricity tariff, won’t this lead to inflation further increase?
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