By Andreas Thomas
WINDHOEK – Nigerian businessman and CEO of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, paid a courtesy visit to Namibian President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah at State House in Windhoek on Thursday.
During the meeting, Namibia’s first female head of state called on African entrepreneurs, such as Dangote, to take the lead in developing the continent.
“Namibia is part and parcel of your own country (Nigeria) being an African country. We believe in Africa for Africans, particularly when it comes to our developmental agenda. We are saying no one else can liberate us economically but ourselves. And African entrepreneurs are the ones we are looking at as citizens of this continent.
“For us to move to the next level and not just to be seen as a continent of poverty. As one of our leaders said, we cannot be a rich continent with poor people. And here in Namibia, I’m saying for Namibia, we are too few to be poor,” she told Dangote during the meeting.
Dangote, accompanied by a delegation, acknowledged that business people from Africa have a role to play in the economic development of the continent.
“There is no way anybody can come and develop our continent. The continent can only be developed by Africans. And that is why a company like ours, we have actually invested now in almost 12 other African countries. Not only Nigeria. And I know if we sit back, there is not any entrepreneur, whether from Japan, from the US or from anywhere, that can actually develop our continent.
“Our continent is very, very rich. But the natural resources and the human resources that we have, they are only good if one puts them to work. Natural resources under the ground can remain there forever if they’re not harnessed.
“And that’s why people like us, entrepreneurs, must show the way. We must encourage other entrepreneurs to make sure that yes, it is possible,” said the Nigerian billionaire entrepreneur.
As an example, Dangote said that his company, with subsidiaries in different sectors of the African economy, has made commendable achievements in the past 10 years.
Dangote Group has diversified interests in economic sectors including sugar processing, cement, as well as oil and gas. He said currently the company operates in 12 countries across the African continent.
Dangote, who held a closed-door meeting with President Nandi-Ndaitwah and her advisors, could not disclose the purpose of his visit to Windhoek.
However, he revealed that the Dangote Group is looking to expand to more African countries.
He emphasised that the group has a footprint in some countries in Southern Africa, and that they have invested $620 million in Zambia and Tanzania.
“We have actually done quite a lot of impossible things. Over the last 8-10 years, mainly in East Africa, countries suffering from a lack of cement, we invested heavily in Ethiopia, Zambia, Tanzania, and even in Southern Africa. We have, I think, the highest African investment there of about $620 million in Southern Africa.
“Then we invested about the same in Tanzania, the same in Ethiopia, and then we did some in Central Africa like Congo Brazzaville. So we are looking at opportunities depending on where,” he said.
Dangote added that the company has now diversified into oil and gas, having built the largest refinery in the world, with a capacity of 650,000 barrels per day and a petrochemical facility producing one million tonnes of polypropylene.
“We do carbon black pit stock, we do LPG, we do sulphate chips. We also have a fertiliser capacity of about three million tonnes, which is the second largest in the world in terms of capacity. So we are looking at other African countries where they have phosphate, we can do the same,” he said.
