Minister – imports not required in Nigeria
For Nigeria’s Minister of State for Finance, Mr. Remi Babalola, it does not make sense for Nigeria to still continue importing cement, 50 years after independence, despite the abundant limestone deposit in the country.
Babalola spoke with Daily Sun in Abeokuta, Ogun State capital shortly after the inauguration of a 1.2Mt quarry belonging to Multiverse Plc at Alaguntan Village in Obafemi-Owode Local Government Area.
According to him, Nigeria should be able to export cement to other African countries by now if the country had been able to put its acts together in terms of infrastructure and the right policy support for different sectors of the economy.
What Nigeria needed to do was to open up the economic environment for the private sector to thrive, particularly in the area of mining which he said could be liberalized in a way that it would significantly contribute to the annual Gross Domestic Product of the nation. He disclosed that the turnover in the telecommunications companies was beginning to outgrow the turnover in the manufacturing companies.
Published under Cement News
