Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote
HARARE — Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, has signed a multi-sector investment deal worth over US$1 billion with the Zimbabwean government through his Dangote Group.
Dangote, whose net worth stands at US$25 billion, flew into Zimbabwe on Wednesday to explore opportunities in the country’s cement and energy sectors — nearly a decade after a similar investment plan failed to materialise in 2015.
“We have just signed an agreement between Zimbabwe and the Dangote Group to undertake various investments across several sectors — including cement, power generation, and petroleum products,” Dangote told journalists after signing the deal at State House in Harare alongside President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
“We are in the business of producing oil and operate the world’s largest single-train refinery in Nigeria. We plan to bring petroleum products to Walvis Bay in Namibia and then pipe them down to southern Africa. There are also a number of other projects we are exploring.”
In July, Reuters reported that Dangote Petroleum Refinery, one of the group’s subsidiaries, intended to build storage tanks in Namibia with a capacity of at least 1.6 million barrels of gasoline and diesel to supply refined fuel to southern Africa.
“It’s a broad investment portfolio — really in the hundreds of millions, maybe even up to US$1 billion. But it will definitely exceed that figure because of the pipeline,” Dangote added.
He said Zimbabwe’s business environment had improved significantly since his last visit.
“There’s quite a bit of change between that time when we came and now. The government is solid,” he said. — NewsDay
