A legendary Nigerian banker has criticized the Buhari Administration for providing unfair advantage to certain connected businessmen.
Atedo Peterside, who founded one of Nigeria’s leading banks while in his thirties and is the co-head of the influential Vision 2050 Economic Steering policy group was reacted to media reports that the Buhari Administration had given the Dangote Group special waivers to move goods across land borders which have been closed for several months as a part of a widely-panned policy to promote local manufacturing, a move which critics claim will undermine the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement which Nigeria signed last year.
Mr Peterside said that such gestures should have been evenly made to all businesses rather than only those with strong political ties to policymakers.
“Allowing legitimate exporters & importers to move their goods across the border should be a no-brainer. Why refuse everybody else & allow only one company (Dangote)? This is why some of us argue that the Nigerian economy is rigged in favour of a handful of well-connected persons,” Mr. Peterside Tweeted on Tuesday morning.
Mr. Dangote has often been criticised as enjoying more than usual benevolence from successive Nigerian governments. In 2019, Dangote called for a total ban of tomato importation while starting its own tomato processing subsidiary.
Bloomberg reported on Monday that only Dangote received the waiver to export its cement across the border to Togo and Niger.