President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, says plans are on to commit between $20 billion and $50 billion worth of future investment in markets outside the African continent.
Dangote, who presides over chains of businesses that include cement, freight, infrastructure, agriculture, construction, and soon, oil refining, said the group’s major investment would, from year 2020, be in the US and Europe.
Dangote, worth $12.3 billion as of mid-August in an interview with Bloomberg market, said aside from the 650,000 barrels per day refinery bill for completion in 2019, the group would consider investing in renewables.
According to Dangote, “We will get into renewables, of course, but we’ll try and partner. Beginning in 2020, 60 percent of our future investments will be in the US and Europe.”
He further said the Dangote Group would be looking at petrochemicals, but could also invest in other companies, saying, “We must believe in the management and what they are doing. But the priorities are here for now. In 2020, the priorities will change, and we’ll diversify because we will have the cash to divest.”
The president of Dangote Group when asked about what excite him about the business said presiding over the chains of businesses for over 20 years was not all about making money, rather it involved making impact.
To him, “For more than 20 years, Dangote was just a trading company. Then we decided we wanted to be an industrial giant and we had to start somewhere. It wasn’t just about cement. It was about industrialisation. If you look at what Dangote Group is doing, it is about improving people’s lives.”
Commenting on the suggestion of financially backing up tech start-ups, he opined that technology was not really an area he wanted to go into right now, saying that if he was going to invest in a tech company, he could buy shares, “but it’s not something he want to go in and run.
“I am very passionate about industrialisation more than going into a tech company. It doesn’t make any sense for us to go direct there.”
KELECHI EWUZIE
