Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, has knocked Federal Government over devaluation of Naira currency in 2023.
Dangote said the devaluation affected his company seriously, stressing that the firm is still battling to recover from the ‘mess’.
The multi billionaire business mongul made the declaration during the annual general meeting of Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc, noting that the domestic operating atmosphere for his business was hostile, being an election year that had a new government sworn into office.
Dangote assured that the conglomerate is making efforts to accomplish the payment of dividends this year.
He insisted that many companies in Nigeria, especially in food and beverages businesses, were also affected by the harsh economic policies of the government and have been unable to pay dividends.
“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,” Dangote said.
“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.”
