Alhaji Abdul-Samad Rabiu, a Nigerian business mogul and CEO of BUA Group, says it is cheaper to transport a container from China to Lagos than to transport same from Lagos to Kano.
Rabiu, the Chairman and CEO of BUA Group, disclosed this in Paris while speaking on the enormous opportunities to invest in the Nigerian transportation system, particularly the rail sector.
He added that cargo containers are transported from China and other countries through the sea while moving the container to the far North and other parts of the country is by road transportation.
Rabiu however commended the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari for priotising the building of railways across the nation and called on global financiers and private investors to invest in the sector.
He said there were also enormous opportunities in commercial agriculture with large arable land in the country as well as mining and manufacturing.
According to him, Nigeria is sitting on billions of tons of different mineral resources including limestone which his company is well known for in the production of cement.
“Nigeria is sitting on 45 billion tons of limestones and presently all the cement factories in the country combined are producing 30 million tons of cement daily.
“We are able to produce for local consumption and also for export.
“One of my plants in Sokoto is exporting cement to Niger Republic which is about 120km to the plant and also to Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, which is about 400km away from Sokoto,” he said.
Rabiu also disclosed that Nigeria is one of 12 countries in the world that have large deposit of iron ore, gas and coal, but unfortunately the country is importing steel“We spend N2.5 billion dollars annually importing steel to Nigeria.
“With 2.5 billion dollar, we should be able to set up a plant that can produce steel of 1.5 to 2 million tons per annum,” he said.
