Executive Director of the Dangote Group, Hajiya Halima Aliko-Dangote has urged millennials in Nigeria and across Africa to diversify from service-oriented enterprises to manufacturing and agriculture in a bid to fast-track the development of the continent and better life for its nationals.
Halima Dangote said that the economic realities around the world have shown that the way to go is agriculture and that the youths must take the lead more when most African countries are still grappling with low economic growth.
Addressing the 58th Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) in Abuja recently, Hajiya Dangote said African countries have groped in the dark for too long and it is high time the millennials stand up to be counted as the future of the continent.
In her paper titled “Roles of Millennials in Transition and Institution Building”, the Dangote Group Director explained that the youths have the potentials to turn around the fortune of the African continent. She stated that “Millennials are young ones born between 1980 and the mid-2000s, who account for 27% of the global population (about 2 billion people) and Sub-Saharan Africa alone is home to 13% of the entire millennial population, ranking second to Asia.
According to her, “available statistics have also revealed that by 2025, 75% of the global workforce will be millennials, large enough to influence consumer spending patterns; change consumer business models and impact the global economy. Most members of this generation are at the beginning of their careers and so will be an important engine for economic growth in the decades to come.”
Amid intermittent applause from the lawyers, Hajiya Halima Dangote stated that the theme of the conference which is “Transition, Transformation, and Sustainable Institutions” could not have come at a better time than now and therefore lauded the Association for coming up with a subject that Nigeria and Africa needed to discuss.
She congratulated the outgoing President of the NBA, Mr. A. B. Mahmoud, the incoming President, Mr. Paul Usoro SAN, and “all my learned friends here for successfully continuing with the vision handed down by the fathers and founders of the Association.”
The Executive Director also urged millennials and other relevant stakeholders to exercise restraint in the face common desperation for wealth by their contemporaries adding that, “Success in entrepreneurship takes time, dedication and hard work. There is a need to disabuse our mind from the concept of overnight success. Industrialisation requires patience and perseverance.”
