Dangote’s $2bn petrochemical plant, what Business Day reported is worth consideration when discussing unemployment in Nigeria.
“Dangote’s two billion US dollar petrochemical plant located in Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos State will produce 77 different high-performance grades of polypropylene.
Devakumar Edwin, group executive director, Strategy, Capital Projects, and Portfolio Development, Dangote Industries Ltd., disclosed this in a statement obtained in Lokoja on Monday, according to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
The statement sent by e-mail said that Edwin disclosed this while giving an update on the petrochemical project which is nearing completion and said to be the biggest in Africa.
The statement was signed by Tony Chiejine, assistant manager, Group Communication and Branding of Dangote Group.
We have also reported on this site that Dangote Petrochemical Complex Lekki is another Feather to the business mogul’s Investments
According to the group executive director, the plant with an estimated yearly turnover of $1.2 billion has the capacity to produce 900,000 metric tonnes of 77 different grades of petrochemical per annum.
He said that the 77 different polypropylene can go for different usage.
The Dangote Petrochemical plant is situated alongside the Dangote Refinery also in Lekki, Lagos State.”
Now have you ever used a plastic product?
If you think of the downline in supplies you will understand why such investment will have a heavy impact in the Nigeria’s Labour Market.
While millions of graduates finds their way to the labour market yearly, the Dangote’s $2bn petrochemical plant is expected to wrestle a greater number of these youths into a rewarding engagement.
Now let me attempt to back up my claims, statistica.com in one of their articles had this to say
“In the academic year 2018/2019, Nigerian universities counted 1.8 million undergraduate students and 242 thousand postgraduate students. Among master students, women accounted for 38 percent of the total, while the female percentage among bachelor students was 44 percent.
Nigeria’s largest university is the National Open University of Nigeria, which had over half million students as of 2019.”
With the above data you can see how onerous it is for the Nigeria Federal Government to accommodate the number of graduates churned out the Nigeria Universities.
But the goodnews as reported in Busines Day is that the Dangote’s $2bn petrochemical plant “has been strategically positioned to cater for the demands of the growing plastic processing downstream industries; not only in Africa but also in other parts of the world.
The Dangote Petrochemical Plant will drive investment in the downstream industries massively, generating huge value addition in the country, generate employment, increase tax revenues, reduce foreign exchange outflow and increase the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country,
The paper reports that the petrochemical plant would also embark on the production of polyethylene products in the nearest future.
On completion, the Dangote Chief said that the petrochemical plant would reduce the demand for foreign exchange from the nation’s treasury.
Right now, raw materials from polypropylene are imported into the country. There is no foreign exchange for manufacturers to import raw materials. The Dangote Petrochemical plant is going to take care of this challenge.
When the raw materials are locally available, there will be many more people who will be willing to invest in the economy.
So, it not just the savings of foreign exchange from petrochemical products’ importation, the country’s downstream sector will also benefit hugely from the availability of petrochemicals in the country,” he further explained.”
So what do I have to tell our youths, GET SKILLED UP! Opportunities are on the way. Get a skill while reading your books to be able to grab the opportunity that is coming through the Dangote’s $2bn petrochemical plant.
