The country needs $15bn from asset sales and borrowing to revive the slumping economy and boost foreign reserves, according to Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote.

Dangote said in a Bloomberg TV interview at the US-Africa Business Forum in New York on Wednesday, “Through sales of assets, through loans from the Bank of China or wherever, we need something like $15bn. We’re having a problem as the reserves are low. The banks, entrepreneurs and everybody is speculating on the currency.”

Nigeria’s economy, battered by low oil prices and a dearth of foreign investment, is set to shrink in 2016 for the first time in 25 years, according to the International Monetary Fund, which forecasts a 1.8 per cent contraction.

The foreign reserves have fallen by more than a third since the end of September 2014 to more than 10-year low of $24.8bn. The naira has fallen almost 40 per cent against the dollar this year.

President Muhammadu Buhari’s government is trying to spend a record budget of N6.1tn to stimulate growth. The country plans to raise about $4.5bn of concessional loans and Eurobonds this year to help pay for the spending plans.

The President, according to Dangote, is making good on his promise to tackle corruption.

“President Buhari is doing a great job in terms of fighting corruption. Corruption has gone down dramatically,” he said.

The Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, on Wednesday joined the list of eminent Nigerians calling for sale of state assets to get the much-needed foreign exchange and shore up the nation’s fast-depleting external reserves.

Sanusi, who spoke in Lagos as the special guest at the launch of the 2016 Afrinvest Banking Sector Report, said, “One option is to sell down some assets; sell down some refineries in a manner that does not hurt your strategic interest; sell down some oil assets; sell down some refineries in a transparent manner that gives you value. You can also have options to buy them back later. You should expect basically forex.”

He also backed the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Monetary Policy Committee’s decision to keep the lending rate unchanged, praising it for not yielding to political pressure to increase the benchmark lending rate.

Sanusi said, “I think it is a positive thing when the fiscal authorities and the many people in the private sector said they wanted a lower rate of interest rate. I was concerned that the CBN would succumb to pressure.

“And the fact that the CBN did not succumb to the pressure is a fact that it is beginning to claim its independence, which is a very positive thing.

“And these are economic questions, you make choices. I can see why the CBN does not want to lower the interest rate at this time. If you lower the MPR by 100 or 200 basis points today, it is not going to lead to rapid increase in credit growth.

“You will not see an increase in credit growth that will reverse the downward trend in output by lowering the MPR by 100 or 200 per cent. You will, however, further fuel inflation, and you will reduce the yield in fixed income at a time you are trying to attract foreign exchange.

According to him, the economy is in a crisis and requires forex to survive, adding that the fiscal and monetary authorities must do everything to attract forex into the country.

In doing this, the emir said the CBN must demonstrate courage to implement the foreign exchange policy to the full.

He said, “The immediate oxygen that this economy needs is forex, because before you talk about long-term structural issues of power and refineries, you do need forex coming into this economy and portfolio investments are important.

“The CBN got the decision right, adopting a flexible exchange rate, and secondly, tightening monetary policy.

“But do we really have a flexible exchange rate? We need the CBN to take that risk and courage to implement the flexible foreign exchange policy. Let the market work in the next two or three weeks and see as people know they can come in, sell their dollars, buy stocks, sell their dollars and fixed income, make a profit in currency and capital acquisition; you are going to have gradually narrowing of the gap between the interbank and the parallel rates and have more liquidity in the market.”

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Aliko Dangote has not given up on his plan to acquire Arsenal. The Nigerian reportedly worth $10.9bn says he plans to take over the club by the end of the decade.

Dangote stated last year that he was prepared to pay any sum to take ownership of the Premier League club away from Stan Kroenke.

Dangote, a lifelong Arsenal fan whose fortune is largely tied up in Dangote Cement, is reported to have lost $4.4bn this year due largely to the depreciation of Nigeria’s currency

But the 59-year-old says he still plans to complete a takeover of the Gunners before the end of the decade once his latest ventures in gas pipelines and an oil refinery have developed.

“Maybe three to four years,” he told Bloomberg Television when asked when he intended to buy the club. “The issue is that we have more challenging headwinds. I need to get those out of the way first and start having tailwinds. Then I’ll focus on this.”

Dangote believes his success in the business world proves he is the right man to transform Arsenal’s fortunes, after years of relative stagnation under Kroenke and manager Arsene Wenger.

“It’s not about buying Arsenal and just continuing with business as usual,” he said. “It’s about buying Arsenal and turning it around.

“I’ve run a very successful business and I think I can also run a very successful team. Right now, with what we’re facing, over 20billion dollars of projects, I cannot do both.”

Kroenke, who has been criticised by fans for a perceived lack of interest in the team’s on-pitch successes, increased his majority shareholding to 67.05 per cent in May.

Alisher Uzmanov, the Russian billionaire who owns a 30.04 per cent stake in the club, moved to deny rumours last month that he was considering selling his shares, insisting that he sees the Gunners as “a long-term investment for family and future generations”.

Arsenal, who dispatched Nottingham Forest 4-0 in the EFL Cup on Tuesday, have won three, drawn one and lost one of their opening five Premier League games this season.

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Nigeria's debt profile has risen to N16.29tn, the Debt Management Office has said.

Statistics obtained from the DMO on Tuesday showed that the country’s total debt liability had risen to N16.29tn as of June 30, 2016. As of June 2015, the country’s total debt stood at N12.12tn.

This means that within the one-year period (July 2015 to June 2016), the country’s total debt rose by N4.17tn, or 34.41 per cent.

A breakdown of the country’s debt profile shows that external debt by the federal and state governments stood at $11.26bn or N3.19tn as of June 30, 2016. It was $10.32bn or N2.03tn by July last year.

According to the DMO, the Central Bank of Nigeria’s official exchange rates of N283 to $1 as of June 30, 2016, and N197 as at December 2015 were used in arriving at the naira equivalent of the foreign debt status.

The domestic debt of the Federal Government alone stood at N10.61tn as of June this year, up from N8.4tn a year ago.

This means that within 12 months, the Federal Government’s domestic debt profile rose by N2.21tn or 26.31 per cent.

The domestic debt of the states stood at N2.5tn at the end of June this year, whereas it was N1.69tn in July 2015. This means that within a period of one year, the domestic debt of the states rose by N810bn, an increase of 47.93 per cent.

For domestic debt, FGN Bonds remained the dominant instrument for borrowing from the domestic market, as it accounted for N7.47tn or 70.46 per cent of the Federal Government’s domestic debt profile.

The Nigerian Treasury Bills accounted for N2.9tn or 27.36 per cent of the Federal Government’s domestic debt profile.

Treasury Bonds, on the other hand, accounted for N230.99bn or 2.18 per cent of Federal Government’s domestic borrowing.

Although the Federal Government had for long acknowledged that it was borrowing too much from the domestic debt market and crowding out the private sector, current debt statistics show that the trend has not changed.

The DMO recently said that refinancing 30 per cent of the Federal Government’s domestic debt amounting to N2.56tn within the next one year posed a high risk to the economy.

The DMO, in a document, ‘Nigeria’s Debt Management Strategy 2016-2019’, said at least 30 per cent of the nation’s domestic debt would fall due within a one-year period.

It added that refinancing the 30 per cent component of the domestic debt posed high risk to the economy because of high interest rate.

It stated, “This debt stock is slightly lower than the published FGN’s total debt stock of $55,576.28m (N10,948,526.57m), because the Debt Management Strategy tool treats the NTBs stock based on the discount values and not on the face values; while for the external debt, the tool aggregates the debt by tranche and currency, and applies a common end-period exchange rate. These gave rise to the observed difference.

“The implied interest rate was high at 10.77 per cent, due mainly to the higher interest cost on domestic debt. The portfolio is further characterised by a relatively high share of domestic debt falling due within the next one year.

“Interest rate risk is high, since maturing debt will have to be refinanced at market rates, which could be higher than interest rates on existing debt. The foreign exchange risk is relatively low given the predominance of domestic debt in the portfolio.”

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