America first is about creating internal jobs and Africa should adopt a similar approach says the continent’s richest man, industrialist Aliko Dangote.
He said he was a believer that continued importing meant that poverty was also being imported and jobs exported.
“So since it is America first, we should also say, Africa first. We should try and create jobs here,” he said, adding that Asians ploughed what they made legally or illegally back into their region and that was why its economy was growing.
Some African nations have been accused of corruption, he said, but corruption is everywhere with the difference being that in Africa the majority of people “take the money out of the continent”.
In March, Dangote had an estimated net worth of US$28.1 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, and $23.8 billion according to Forbes..
“People now always come and talk about corruption, corruption, corruption. Africa is not the only place that you have corruption. Corruption is all over the place. The only difference is that our corrupt people, when they steal the money, they fly the money out of the continent, if they continue to invest here, then the economy will grow,” Dangote stated.
“Of course, there was corruption in [Asia] . . . . But they were able to grow just because they did not do what we are doing in Africa, taking the money out of the continent, out of their Asian region. I’m not saying encouraged that (corruption).
“Whether it’s America, whether it’s Europe, anywhere that you think of, there is corruption, but our own is totally different. Where you deprive your country of the money, you deprive your family of the money because you won’t tell your family you stole money. Then you will go and hide the money somewhere. When you die, the money will go into the banking system,” Dangote said.
“So if I’m not investing at home, how do I convince somebody to come and partner with me and invest and make Africa great? It’s difficult,” he stated.
Dangote, who is involved in cement and sugar businesses among others, was taking part in AAM2025: Building the Future on Decades of Resilience, the Afreximbank’s four-day 32nd Annual Meetings at the Transcorp Hotel in Abuja on Friday. During A Conversation: The Path to Making Africa GreatAgain: Reflections of Mr Aliko Dangote, the founder and president/ chief executive of Dangote Group spoke with moderator Eleni Giokos, CNN anchor and correspondent.
“So most of them, they invest their money at home, both people who have made money legally, people who have made money illegally, the money doesn’t leave the countries they invest there,” he said.
Turning to, US President, Donald Trump’s use of tariffs, Dangote said the president wanting to reindustrialise America meant making tough decisions.
“Trump always say, make America great. What he’s trying to do is actually trying to create jobs. Some people might not agree with me, but I fully agree with him, because I’ve been through that route where now we try to do industries, and they keep saying that, no, no, no, open up your market. When you now say you open up, you don’t have what it takes to allow every single thing to be dumped into your own market,” he stated.
“This is what you call fair competition. There’s also what you call dumping because if I have excess, I will take it at half price to go and dump in somebody’s market. So I make sure that the country does not produce what it needs.
Using the example of Trump’s 50 per cent tariff on steel he reasoned that “if he doesn’t do that, American steel industry will shut down”.
The two things that do not allow industries to thrive, especially in Africa, said Dangote, were a lack of electricity and inconsistencies in government policies.
In relation to former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo’s action on cement after the country was the number two importer in the world, the businessman said it was reversed integration where if you did not have a factory you could not import.
“So all of us, we now run to set up industries.
I know that our bankers were very small at that time but we went very aggressive. Nigeria was producing 1.9 million tonnes of cement,” he stated.
The benefit of that policy is that Nigeria does not have to import cement and the combined cement produced from 2007 is more than 60 million tonnes, and the country is the largest exporter in Africa, Dangote said.
Antoinette Connell is in Abuja, Nigeria, sponsored by Afreximbank, covering the bank’s 32nd Annual Meetings.
