Nigerian business tycoon, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has announced plans to fully penetrate the American and European markets with an investment of about $50 billion.
Dangote stated that he hopes to achieve this by 2025 and his intention is to explore the renewable energy and petrochemicals sectors.
Speaking in an interview with Bloomberg Markets Magazine, the Africa’s richest man, who has in the past been reported to be interested in buying Arsenal Football Club of England, disclosed that he will begin to explore the two foreign markets from 2020, after completing his $16 billion projects in Nigeria.
“Beginning in 2020, 60 percent of our future investments will be outside Africa, so we can have a balance,” Mr Dangote, who is worth $11.6 billion, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, stated in the interview.
Commenting further, Mr Dangote 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.”
On food security in Africa, he remarked that African nations “depend on imported food,” noting that, “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.”
On the telecom industry, Mr Dangote said, “When I look at telecoms, for instance, I think that would be very tough for us.
“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.”
