President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, yesterday in Abuja said Nigeria would be able to produce enough rice and sugar in the next four years for local consumption and export.
He added that this was in addition to other commodities presently being produced locally.
Dangote made this declaration during a meeting he held with the Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-Moon, in the company of other Nigerian major entrepreneurs.
Dangote noted that Nigeria would be a global hub for massive food production in the next couple of years if its huge potentials were tapped.
He added that the country would soon become the largest exporter of petroleum products and fertilizer going by the massive financial investment his companies were making into the country.
He said Nigeria’s full potential would only be reached if the war on corruption being prosecuted by the current administration was allowed to be effective.
“The war on corruption will enable government to have better outcome on any naira or dollar earned or spent,” he said.
He, however, advised the government and local business players to focus more on the non-oil sectors of the economy which he said were veritable revenue spinners.
The UN scribe, earlier in the parley advised Nigerian business men support the rapid achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals, SDG, in Nigeria.
He also said the nation should harness the huge global goodwill it was enjoying at present to solve its developmental challenges.
“No country or institution can solve its challenge alone; we must harness the power of the private sector and civil society for share of solution to the complex challenges. We need to build all-inclusive global partnership with the future of accountability and for share of responsibility; we must leverage on our comparative strength, capacities and resources to achieve meaningful result,” he said.