Africa can become prosperous in five years, based on local Investments and a long-term vision, Nigerian industrialist Aliko Dangote commented at the “AAM2025: Building the Future on Decades of Resilience,” the Afreximbank’s four-day 32nd Annual Meeting, that took place in Abuja.
Dangote called for Africa to break with Africa’s dependence, in favor of development driven by local capital and skills. He insists on the essential collaboration between public authorities, the financial sector, and citizens.
“We can turn Africa into a heaven in the next five years,” he said.
Reputedly the richest man in Africa, Dangote is chairman and CEO of the Dangote group, which has interests in cement production and sugar refining, and operates an oil refinery that is the largest in Africa and the seventh-largest in the world. He is famous for saying that imports lead to the export of jobs and the import of poverty. He seeks to develop Nigeria’s resources and to reduce imports.
Dangote announced that Africa will be self-sufficient in fertilizer within 40 months, on the basis of a planned expansion of his $2.5 billion plant on the outskirts of Lagos. Dangote runs Africa’s largest granulated urea complex, which has an annual capacity of 3 million tons, 37% of which it exports to the United States. Africa currently imports over 6 million metric tons of fertilizer annually.
