TheCable

Joseph Idiong, director-general of the Association of Nigerian Exporters, has advised the federal government to request Nigerians with oil blocks for single digit interest loans to address the current recession in the country.

Idiong gave the advice in an interview with NAN in Abuja on Wednesday.

“The privileged few who were favoured with petroleum blocks, crude oil sales and petroleum subsidy licences should be approached to grant single digit interest loans to Federal Government,” he said.

“This will be part of their way of giving back to society.”

Idiong said such Nigerians should also be patriotic enough to invest in export-oriented manufacturing and petrochemical industries than investing in shopping plazas selling imported products.

He described as fraudulent the act of selling public assets to debtors who take local bank loan on personal recognition.

Idiong maintained that such people who would bank liquidity ended up using the public assets as their loan collateral.

In a recent interview, Aliko Dangote, president of Dangote Group, advised that selling government’s assets could be the best way to get the country out of recession.

Dangote called on the federal government to consider selling the Nigerian Liquified Natural Gas and other dormant but huge capital-generating assets and invest the proceeds in the economy.