More Investments, Less Aid: Dangote To Global Community

 Busayo Investing, Investors, Markets

inShare2

VENTURES AFRICA – Aliko Dangote, Africa’s cement king and owner of the continent’s largest conglomerate, has re-established the need for the global community to focus more on exploring investment opportunities rather than flood the continent with aid, which is considered highly unsustainable and more recently, less impacting.
According to him, one of the major problems affecting the influx of international trade to the continent is that most investors still posses little or no concrete knowledge about Africa, relying rather on skewed perceptions developed overtime.
He described Africa as a blessed continent with abundant natural resources that investors can trade in. “The future is bright because we have what it takes to really get to the next level, we have the best land and of course water, we have all the resources countries like China and others are looking for within Africa in abundance…We really don’t need aid
anymore in Africa, what we need is trade,” the African Industrialist and Philanthropist said in a recent interview with CNN.
He urged developed countries to promote investments in Africa by investing and partnering with businesses on the continent. “You will make money and we’ll make money and it’s better for everyone, and the continent will experience real growth and development,” he said.
One of the major industries identified for investment by the business mogul is power. “If we can take care of the infrastructure, mainly power, we can hit a growth rate of seven percent,” he said.
Erratic power supply has been identified as a major hindrance to doing effective business on the continent. Industry analysts proffer that should this challenge be effectively tackled, Africa is poised to become the next major investment hub.
On investment risk validation, Dangote, who has investments in more than 14 African countries said: “Before, there was the risk that governments might nationalise assets but now we have investment agreements in the countries that say if it does get nationalised, they’ll have to pay us.”
“I am not saying it is as good as elsewhere but investment in the continent comes with almost the highest ROI (Return on Investment) in the world.”