The President, Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote,Monday raised hope of an electrified Nigeria very soon when said his company targets to generate about 12,000 megawatts of electricity for the country by 2018.He is optimistic that the business model he has adopted would help create oases of opportunities for Nigerian entrepreneurs in the coming years.

He also said that his business estate would start selling foreign exchange to the Central Bank of Nigeria by 2020.

Dangote spoke in Lagos on Monday at the Nigerian Summit organised by Economist Events, the events management division of The Economist of London. He was on stage for a conversation on The Big Business Perspective.

“We are looking at a situation that by 2020, we will be the one selling FX to the CBN. Our projects are mainly import substitution. We are working to be self-sufficient to grow about a million tonnes of rice over the next five years.

“Our gas project would have our gas pipelines on the seabed. The output should be able to provide about 12,000MW of power. We see a lot of transformation when we are done with most of our projects by 2018.

“We have 15 countries in the ECOWAS community that are duty-free. The export market is big and profitable if you have the capacity. Players in the manufacturing (sector) should be encouraged to export if they have the capacity. We must also meet local consumption.”

Dangote attributed some of the business challenges facing investors and business owners in the country to change in policies by successive governments. According to him, “If the government keeps changing policies nobody will want to invest. The government can take on a few projects and see to its conclusion”.

He added further that the Nigeria Industrial revolution plan should be pursued vigorously, because of the setback the nation is facing for some time now is as a result of wrong steps in implementation which is a major problem.

For a country that is thinking of diversifying its economy, we must device a means of being self-sufficient and then, we can attract foreign exchange, he said. There is however a major problem with regard to export which is crucial to earning forex and it lies in our local companies not being geared towards export due to the lack of capacity to drive export, Dangote added.

“People should learn how to export, the government should find a way to correct the export credit scheme in the country and there should be a level playing ground for everyone. Incentives should be given to people to set up industries”.

“ Though export is competitive with lots of challenges, this should not be a setback to invest in industries or go into exports, which will help the country earn forex. Being ahead of your competitors is key to growth and development”, Dangote added.

The summit ends today with four governors making appearance.