Africa’s leading industrialist, Aliko Dangote of Nigeria, is planning transformative investments in Zimbabwe and Zambia. Meeting with Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Nov. 12 in Harare, Dangote signed a memorandum of understanding committing to invest up to $1 billion in projects that include power generation, fertilizer and cement plants, and a 2,200 km petroleum products pipeline from Namibia’s Walvis Bay, through Botswana, to Zimbabwe’s second-largest city, Bulawayo.
“The broader investment is in the hundreds of millions of dollars, maybe even more than a billion, but you know we will tell you the amount as we go along. But really it will be over a billion because of the pipeline,” Dangote said at the signing ceremony.
Reputedly the richest man in Africa, Dangote is famous for having built a 500,000 barrel-per-day oil refinery, the seventh largest and most modern that is making Nigeria self sufficient in petroleum products. He also has large investments in cement and fertilizer production in Nigeria, with cement projects planned for Ethiopia and other African countries.
