Nigerian businessman and owner of the Dangote Group Aliko Dangote has pledged to invest up to US$15bn in business opportunities around Africa by 2018
Dangote noted that there was no better time to invest in Africa than now, while speaking at the sidelines of a meeting hosted by US President Barack Obama at the University of Johannesburg, earlier this week.
The Nigerian business tycoon revealed that his company has already invested approximately US$8bn in an oil refinery and another US$2bn in fertiliser in Nigeria.
According to him, all these investments were “just to interest people who really do not understand Africa and show them that doing business in the continent is not as bad as what people portray it to be.”
Dangote said, “We are a little stretched because in the next four to five years we are going to spend almost US$15bn, which is quite a lot.” He added, “The return on investment in Africa is always very high, almost as high as 30 per cent."
Dangote also pointed out that there was immense opportunity in Africa’s agricultural sector. He said, “In the next couple of years, when the world population will cross eight billion, a lot of countries will need arable land and that land is only available in Africa. So there will be a lot happening here.”
