Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote has expressed the wish to be remembered as someone who opened up the continent to industrialisation.
This was as he revealed that his real wealth may be higher than what global wealth trackers report because some of his biggest businesses are not publicly listed.
Dangote spoke during a street interview with James Dumoulin, the founder of the School of Hard Knocks platform, which is recognised for interviewing some of the world’s richest and most powerful people.
He said he never imagined building his empire growing up, despite selling candy to classmates, and that he has passed the stage of doing business just to make money. “It is to leave a legacy. I want to be remembered as somebody who has industrialized Africa,” he said.
Forbes currently puts Dangote’s wealth at about $31.6 billion, while Bloomberg estimates it at around $35.6 billion. The industrialist said his fortune was built on “boring businesses” like cement, sugar, rice and flour, through backward integration to produce locally what Nigeria used to import, before moving into oil and gas “where the scale is huge.”
Responding to a poser on the most money he had made in a year, the industrialist said his businesses made about $10 billion in the first quarter.
He also questioned estimates of his net worth, saying: “They say I’m worth $38 billion, but most of our businesses are not listed yet.”
This comes as a hint that the true extent of his wealth could become clearer once some of his private businesses are publicly valued.
Some of the crown jewels of Dangote’s corporate empire are not publicly traded, which contributes significantly to the ambiguity surrounding his riches.
Publicly traded companies of the Dangote Group include Dangote Cement, Dangote Sugar Refinery, and NASCON Allied Industries. However, some of its most valuable assets are still private.
The Dangote Petroleum Refinery stands out as the world’s largest single-train refinery. The group’s fertilizer business is also regarded as one of its most valued unlisted assets.
