好色少妇

 

Africa鈥檚 richest man, Aliko Dangote has revealed that inspite of his amazing wealth, he doesn't have a house abroad. The Nigerian billionaire who lives a modest life in this interview with has revealed personal details of himself many people do not know about.

 

He sat down with Francine Lacqua, an anchor on Bloomberg TV in London and revealed the following details.

 

FRANCINE LACQUA: You鈥檝e made billions in cement鈥攕omething humans have produced for thousands of years. What did you figure out?

ALIKO DANGOTE: I think actually what I figured out was looking at the entire African continent, especially sub-Saharan, and saying, 鈥淲hat do we actually produce?鈥� What I learned is that the majority of African countries imported cement. The better way, I thought, would be to empower Africa鈥攖o meet our own infrastructural needs so that we could be more self-颅sufficient.

 

 

AD It鈥檚 not all about making money. It鈥檚 about making impact. For more than 20 years, Dangote was just a trading company. Then we decided we wanted to be an industrial giant鈥攁nd we had to start somewhere. It wasn鈥檛 just about cement. It was about industrialization. If you look at what Dangote Group is doing, it鈥檚 about improving people鈥檚 lives.

 

 

AD I think you need to be very courageous. You have to be bold but also consistent. It鈥檚 not very easy to become one, I鈥檒l tell you that much.

 

AD We鈥檝e done $18 billion of business in the span of about four years, which is almost unheard of in Africa. Most people don鈥檛 know what is happening in Africa or that we鈥檙e the first African company to attempt these endeavors鈥攃ement, agriculture, and now so much more. Sometimes you meet people, and they look at you and say, 鈥淗ow did this guy get here?鈥� Because if you say, 鈥淵ou are in Africa,鈥� they think Africa is a jungle鈥攖hat鈥檚 the issue. So unless you go and see, you will not believe these things are happening.

 

 

AD Agriculture. When you look at it鈥攏ot just in Nigeria but in the rest of Africa鈥攖he majority of countries here depend on imported food. 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. We have land, we have water, we have the climate鈥攚e shouldn鈥檛 be a massive importer of food. With modern farming you can get 8 to 10 tons per hectare. I believe Dangote Group is in the right position to drive this trajectory. I expect another 5 to 10 companies to join our efforts in the next year. By 2019 we might be able to actually create about 290,000 jobs in agriculture. And that鈥檚 what you can do to empower people, especially those from rural areas.

 

 

AD What you have to understand is that in Africa, going back 25 or 30 years, the majority of businesses were actually owned by government. And government has never been good at running any business. That鈥檚 the issue we have. Government鈥檚 job is not to drive the process. We have entrepreneurship now, and that鈥檚 what we are trying to do. We are not as lucky as Asia, where they already had a lot of entrepreneurship dating back generations and caught that wave. In Africa, when you really look at it deep down, we lack the entrepreneurship to match that boom in Asia. And we don鈥檛 have the capital markets to help drive the process. But it鈥檚 happening, slowly.

 

 

AD We are following that very closely and are trying to determine what to do. We must protect ourselves. Today in Nigeria, if you look at climate change鈥攚hich I believe is real鈥攚e have never seen this kind of rain. So we are following everything very, very closely, especially sugar and rice, two crops we鈥檙e focusing on.

 

 

AD Well, you see, the issue is鈥攍et me tell you why we had to go into oil. Our strategy was to be an African company. When you look at the other options, it鈥檚 really agriculture鈥攁nd agriculture doesn鈥檛 take that much money. We always invest most of our money back into the business, so when we looked at it in 2015 and projected our revenue for the next few years, we looked at what we had left after investing in fertilizer and realized we still had billions of dollars we could put somewhere else. The only place we could invest that much money was in the oil and gas business. So the refinery takes those dollars and allows us to invest in something we are used to, which is industry.

 

 

AD The majority of people here made their money through oil. But Dangote has never ever dealt in oil, which is to prove that you don鈥檛 have to be in oil. In Nigeria, oil has really damaged our thinking. Everyone is thinking about oil, oil, oil. And we are one company that has made a success without doing that. Also, people always say, 鈥淥h, he鈥檚 in oil and gas鈥攖here鈥檚 a lot of corruption in oil and gas.鈥� We didn鈥檛 want to be a part of that. There are a lot of friends of mine in oil, and they are doing the right thing. But I didn鈥檛 want to be a suspect, so that鈥檚 why we鈥檙e not in oil.

 

 

AD In business you need to know before you jump into something. You have to do quite a lot of homework. For instance, Nigeria鈥檚 refineries were privatized in 2007. We bought two, but after a few months we had a new government that decided to void the transaction, thinking we got a very good deal. So since 2007 we鈥檝e been actually working on building our own refinery, but we didn鈥檛 finally start something until 2015.

 

AD We had already studied doing 300,000 barrels a day back in 2005. At that time I couldn鈥檛 even fathom a larger refinery. I had no financial capacity. Then in about 2010 we paid all 颅Dangote Group鈥檚 debts, which amounted to $2 billion, and started accumulating cash. When we decided to build the refinery of our dreams, we reviewed our plans again and put the figure at 400,000. Then it jumped up to 650,000. So a refinery had actually been on the drawing table for years, but this is how we were able to finally push it through.

 

 

AD At the moment we are a little bit off track. We didn鈥檛 really realize that we were going to need almost 70 million cubic meters of sand. But we are catching up, and I鈥檓 sure we鈥檒l be able to deliver it by the last quarter of 2017.

 

 

AD I don鈥檛 have that worry. We have the most robust team anyone can put together, and we鈥檝e been doing this sort of work together for years. We have actually never failed in delivering any project. We always deliver our projects on time and at cost. If we hadn鈥檛 delivered our projects on time, that would be something. We will definitely deliver, by the grace of God.

 

 

AD We don鈥檛 want to listen to the critics, because their intention is to destroy us. We are using our own money. This is my lifetime project. I have to back it up with my own life to make sure it is delivered. I know that, yes, it鈥檚 true, a lot of people have tried to deliver on refineries in the past, mostly governments. They couldn鈥檛.

 

 

AD It鈥檚 an ambitious project, yes, but we have others at that particular site, too. We have a gas pipeline, for instance. We are trying to bring gas to Nigeria. The total gas that will come out is on par with the likes of Shell and other people. This will transform Nigeria because, as we speak, we have about 6,800 megawatts of power capacity that has been installed but not been put to use, the reason being that we don鈥檛 have the infrastructure.

 

AD I think it鈥檚 easier, yeah. It鈥檚 more defined. You can plan better. You don鈥檛 have issues of currency devaluation. There鈥檚 more clarity. Yeah, it鈥檚 better. The difference is here the profit margins are huge鈥攎uch larger. And if you are not a big player, you have no way of survival.

 

 

AD For the refinery, almost every single thing was imported from abroad. One of the difficulties was that most of our ports are not designed to receive heavy equipment; 75 percent of the cargo we need for the refinery cannot be offloaded in the port of Lagos. One piece of equipment weighed 2,870 tons! No port in Nigeria is designed for cargo that heavy. So we built our own jetty, about 1 kilometer in the ocean, which was a major project. We couldn鈥檛 get local cranes to hire, either. We had to go and buy 300 cranes. Then there鈥檚 manpower, which we also brought from abroad鈥攁lmost 30,000 people, because we didn鈥檛 have a trained workforce for these massive projects. We are building housing for the foreign workers and expect to have between 35,000 and 40,000 workers at the peak of the project, including locals, whom we will house outside the refinery. So, you know, running businesses in Africa is good, but it鈥檚 not easy. You have to be on top of what you are doing.

 

AD We will get into renewables, of course, but we鈥檒l try and partner. Beginning in 2020 our major investment will be in the U.S. and Europe.

 

AD I think renewables is the only way to go forward, and the future.

 

 

AD Beginning in 2020, 60 percent of our future investments will be outside Africa, so we can have a balance.

 

AD Mostly in Europe and the U.S., but we can also invest in Asia, in Mexico.

 

 

AD We are looking at petrochemicals but can also invest in other companies. 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鈥檒l diversify because we will have the cash to divest.

 

 

AD Let鈥檚 say that by 2025, I鈥檓 looking at between $20 billion and $50 billion. Mind you, we don鈥檛 do small things.

 

AD The market is already big. It鈥檚 a big fight. Big enough for everyone. We will not go alone. We will have partners, too. Having partners there makes a lot of sense.

 

 

AD I grew up in Kano, Nigeria. After my school I went to Egypt and finished there. Then I moved on to Lagos to do business. I learned quite a lot from my late grandfather. He was in trading. I actually grew up with him. I didn鈥檛 know my parents until I was about 4 or 5 years old, and unfortunately my father died when I was 8.

 

 

AD That started maybe at the age of 10 because my family had always been in business. They had been big commodities traders, and my grandfather, may his soul rest in peace, had always been in business.

 

 

AD Brazil was having a lot of currency challenges then, as well as inflation, but they were very industrious. They have a lot of industries that have been built by entrepreneurs, and I got to interview quite a lot of them by going around. I sort of went to Brazil to convince myself to move into industrialization.

 

 

AD I went to a company called Arisco. It was my first time seeing more than 600 people working in a single factory. I went there to visit them and see how they started the business. They had begun very small: salt, then seasoning鈥攁dding garlic into the salt. By the time I was there, Arisco was producing 500 different items, even toothpaste. You couldn鈥檛 wake up in the morning without using their products.

 

AD When I looked at it, especially with Africa in mind, I thought, This is the right way to go. There isn鈥檛 going to be any mistake, I don鈥檛 think, going into industry. So we made that first bold move in Lagos and said, 鈥淲e are going to start.鈥� Our first cement factory had the capacity to produce 5 million tons a year. Nigeria as a whole was producing only 2 million tons back then. And we had never built a cement factory, but that鈥檚 how we started. At that time, freight was almost $90 a ton. We were paying through our nose. It鈥檚 down to $20 a ton now. The story is totally different in other ways now, too. When you look at areas producing cement in Africa, the price has gone down by at least half, and product is actually much more available. The international players also find it difficult to match our quality or change the dynamics of the market.

 

 

AD Back when we first tried cement in 1978, I was just trading鈥攂uying four trucks of cement, selling it, and making my money. Almost every day I was getting an allocation of four trucks. The business grew, but then we decided to dump cement so we could get into sugar, rice, and other commodities. When we went back into cement with that first factory, within the first year, we went from zero market share in Nigeria to about 45 percent. Now the country is producing 42 million tons, of which 29 million tons is ours鈥攁nd it鈥檚 not only Nigeria that we 颅benefit, but we鈥檝e also been able to go to 17 other African countries. By 2019 we鈥檒l have 80 million tons of capacity.

 

 

AD Our business strategy has always been like that, yes. We don鈥檛 want to be No. 2 in anything that we do. We want to be No. 1. Worst case, we can be No. 2 but targeted to become No. 1.

 

 

AD I think it鈥檚 boldness. We make a lot of bold moves, which other people find really difficult to take. We always dream very big, and we鈥檙e committed to investing in Africa. That鈥檚 really what makes the difference. Other people have different 颅priorities, but our dominant priority is here in Africa. We believe that other people have actually done much bigger projects than us in other parts of the world, so the only way to move Africa forward is for people like us to take very bold moves.

 

 

AD I never worry about being too bold. In business it鈥檚 good to be aggressive, but with a human face.

 

 

AD Well, I鈥檝e learned from a couple of things. I thought at first I was really aggressive until I watched this show, The Men Who Built America. I realized that actually they were much bolder than us. Someone like Vanderbilt, he built 50,000 miles of rail! That is a very bold move. That鈥檚 why anything we do, we don鈥檛 do it small. If there鈥檚 any human being who has done this equally, I am equal to the task to do the same. I actually have a sign on my desk that says, 鈥淣othing is impossible.鈥�

 

 

AD It was a turning point. It helped us to be more disciplined. We are not trying to hide our heads from the banks. It has also given us a model to be very prudent and also be financially robust. Because normally people go out there and do project financing. We don鈥檛 do project financing. We leverage our current businesses and then build another new business. So in the head office here, what we do is only strategy and incubating various businesses.

 

 

AD There are a couple, but in Africa there are very few.

 

 

AD I think discipline. You need to be disciplined at what you are doing.

 

AD When I look at telecom, for instance, I think that would be very tough for us. We are a little late. Some players have been in this market for 17 years already. There鈥檚 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 telecom today. There are other businesses that we understand better.

AD We can really do almost anything, but I think technology is not really one of the areas we want to go into right now. If I am going to invest in a tech company, I can buy shares, but it鈥檚 not something I want to go in and run. I am very passionate about industrialization鈥攎ore than going into a tech company. It doesn鈥檛 make any sense for us to go direct there.

 

 

AD Because of our portfolio, yes. If you try to do a little bit here and a little bit there, you get into trouble. We arrive with focus, and we stick to it. Right now, beyond the oil refinery, our focus is on agribusiness. Anything we are doing between now and 2020 has to be agriculture鈥攖hat鈥檚 it. I don鈥檛 want to stretch myself too thin, and the best way to do that is we should deliver on things that were promised, especially because people are wondering if we鈥檒l be able to deliver.

 

 

AD Honestly, I do. Look at the U.S., the way the tech companies are getting massive. And it鈥檚 still nothing compared to the GEs, yet those don鈥檛 get that kind of valuation. I wish that we鈥檇 entered tech, but our concentration has always been in Africa.

 

 

AD Yes, but I don鈥檛 want to go after Arsenal until I deliver the refinery. Once I deliver, I will go after Arsenal.

 

 

AD I don鈥檛 change clubs. Even when Arsenal isn鈥檛 doing well I still stick by them. It鈥檚 a great team, well-run. It could be run better, so I will be there. I will wait. Even if things change I will take it and make the difference going forward.

 

AD Well, you know anything is possible in this world. If they get the right offer, I鈥檓 sure they would walk away. We鈥檒l be in a position to give them the right offer. They will not hold 颅Arsenal forever. Someone will give them an offer that will make them seriously consider walking away. And when we finish the refinery, I think we will be in a position to do that.

 

 

AD The first thing I would change is the coach. He has done a good job, but someone else should also try his luck.

 

 

AD I would rather be a striker. Naturally, I鈥檓 an aggressive person. I don鈥檛 want to be part of the support team. I want to be the one scoring the goals.

 

AD In the mid-鈥�80s. I was introduced to a man named David Dein, who was Arsenal鈥檚 vice chairman, through a friend of my uncle鈥檚. He was the first person who showed me a cargo of sugar in 1980, when I started importing. I started buying sugar, and he started taking me to the stadium.

 

AD I鈥檓 old鈥�60.

 

 

AD No, I鈥檓 not interested. There鈥檚 quite a lot we can do from the business side. I enjoy a lot of what I am doing, and I also love my freedom鈥攁nd I don鈥檛 have too much. The little I have, politics would take away. I am not ready to give that up. There are businessmen who are interested in politics. I鈥檓 not one of them.

 

 

AD I always look at what other people have done and what we should be doing. There are quite a lot of industries which we do need in Africa. We create a lot of raw materials and export finished goods. It is actually easier for us to think about what to do here because, whatever you do, the majority of those decisions will make a positive change. There are a lot of opportunities because of where we are starting from. In the Western world鈥攖he U.S., Europe鈥攜ou have almost everything. In Africa we don鈥檛 have much competition, in part because so many people have their money in liquid cash, not assets.

 

 

AD Well, in Africa, yes, I do think you need politicians. But at the same time, we cannot get things right unless there is good cooperation between the politicians and the businessmen. It鈥檚 a win-win. When you look at it today, in Nigeria, more than 85 percent of the GDP is from the private sector.

 

 

AD Well, you know the political donation depends on who you are dealing with and who you are donating money to. But the issue is we don鈥檛 go and give people in politics money for favors. I鈥檝e told presidents of countries, 鈥淚鈥檓 a contractor, I鈥檓 running a business, I don鈥檛 need any favors.鈥� And really when you look at it today, in all our businesses, we don鈥檛 need any favors. I鈥檓 saying this here and now. I can tell you today, as we speak, that we, Dangote Group, don鈥檛 have any agreements on our fertilizer, our refinery, our agriculture. We don鈥檛 have any support at all. We鈥檝e done our numbers. We think this business will work, and we don鈥檛 need government support.

 

 

AD In Africa, you normally need to know who you鈥檙e dealing with. You have to make sure you鈥檙e dealing with very honest people who have integrity鈥攖hat鈥檚 why we have so few partnerships. Dangote itself has plenty of headaches to take care of.

 

 

AD Yes, the industrialists are now in Africa! Others have matured and are doing something different. I鈥檓 still a big believer in industrialization, though. And when you look at, say, Reliance Group, they are doing quite a lot. We have a lot to catch up with them. That鈥檚 why for us to grow, we can鈥檛 take too much risk. It鈥檚 good for us to also go outside Africa to balance the currency fluctuations.

 

 

AD I think it鈥檚 mainly for the continent. I鈥檓 a very satisfied person and content with what I have so far. I think one of the legacies to leave is how much of an impact have I had for my own people. Really, when you look at it, we are pushing hard on the business and also on the philanthropic side. I want to make the most impact on the world before I depart. I hope to start from home first and grow from there.

 

 

AD I always feel like that, and that鈥檚 what we have. Even in our own foundation we are 70 percent Nigeria, 20 percent rest of Africa, and then 10 percent the rest of world. As we progress we will reduce that portion of Nigeria. Because as we grow, also the foundation will keep growing. It is my own dream not only to be a champion of Africa, but also a champion of the world.

 

 

AD When you think about it, yes, maybe you lost money. But I believe in what we are doing. The businesses are very solid. The only thing that bothers me in Africa is you can gain so much in five years and then you could have two or three years of bad currency valuation. Otherwise, it doesn鈥檛 really keep me awake at night.

 

 

AD The same thing I tell everyone. If you鈥檙e going into business, you have to be very consistent in what you are doing. You have to work hard. Things don鈥檛 come that easy. Think big, dream big, and do big things.

 

 

AD I鈥檓 not a person who just likes to throw away money. I spend more money on charitable things than myself. Luckily, myself and my children, we have been very disciplined. That鈥檚 why if you look at it today, because of the way I run my lifestyle, I actually don鈥檛 have any home outside Nigeria. I stay in hotels. Quiet. Simple. My life is not very lavish, and I actually get very embarrassed if I try to show that I have money. I don鈥檛. I think I always advise people that it鈥檚 better to be very communal. In Lagos, I drive myself around on weekends. I ask my driver to go rest, and then I drive myself around. I still visit my normal friends I grew up with. My house is open 24 hours a day for them. I mingle with everybody. That鈥檚 the only way to get to know what鈥檚 going on.