Aliko Dangote to invest up to $50bn in US and Europe — but has work to do closer to home first

 FRANCINE LACQUA AND PAUL WALLACE | 17 AUGUST 2017 | Business Day

London/Lagos — Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, plans to invest $20bn-$50bn in the US and Europe by 2025, in industries including renewable energy and petrochemicals.

The 60-year-old Nigerian cement tycoon aims to move into these territories for the first time in 2020 after completing almost $5bn of agricultural projects and an $11bn oil refinery in his home country, he said in an interview with Bloomberg Markets Magazine this month.

“Beginning in 2020, 60% of our future investments will be outside Africa, so we can have a balance,” said Dangote, who is worth $11.6bn, according to Bloomberg’s billionaires index.

Dangote Group’s major investment would be in the US and Europe, he said. “I think renewables is the way to go forward, and the future. We are looking at petrochemicals but can also invest in other companies.”

Dangote has diversified rapidly in the past five years, both geographically and into new industries.

He has expanded Dangote Cement plc, which accounts for almost 80% of his wealth, into nine African countries aside from Nigeria.

In 2015, he began building a 650,000-barrel-a-day refinery near Lagos, Nigeria’s main commercial hub, and is constructing gas pipelines to the city from Nigeria’s oil region with US private equity firms Carlyle Group and Blackstone Group.

He said in July that he would invest $4.6bn in the next three years in sugar, rice and dairy production.

Telecoms unappealing

“When you look at it — not just in Nigeria but in the rest of Africa — the majority of countries here depend on imported food,” he said. “There is no way you can have a population of 320-million in West Africa and no self-sufficiency.

“So the first thing to do is food security. I believe Dangote Group is in the right position to drive this trajectory.”

Dangote, who mostly lives in Lagos and counts Bill Gates among his friends, said he was a passionate industrialist and ruled out moving into newer sectors such as telecommunications or technology.

“When I look at telecoms, for instance, I think that would be very tough for us,” he said.

“Some players have been in this market for 17 years already. There’s no way you can go and jump over somebody after 17 years of their hard work.

“So I think we would pass when it comes to telecoms today. There are other businesses that we understand better.”

Dangote also said he was not planning to enter Nigerian politics.

“I’m not interested,” he said. “I enjoy a lot of what I am doing, and I also love my freedom — and I don’t have too much. The little I have, politics would take away.

“There are businessmen who are interested in politics. I’m not one of them.”