Africa’s wealthiest man, Aliko Dangote, has criticised wealthy Africans who spend heavily on private aircraft without investing in factories, arguing that the continent needs more private capital directed towards industrialisation and productive assets.
Speaking in a wide-ranging interview, the billionaire industrialist said personal luxury no longer held much attraction for him, despite acquiring his first private aircraft when he was about 22.
Dangote said his priorities had shifted towards industrialisation and creating productive assets capable of contributing to Africa’s economic development.
“What I see people now owning aircraft all over the place, flying all over, they don’t have one single factory,” Dangote said.
“So it means that they’re not actually helping in growing the economy, and that has to change.”
Dangote’s disclosure that he acquired his first private aircraft at about 22 has attracted attention, but he placed the experience within a broader argument about wealth, consumption and the responsibility of Africa’s wealthy individuals to invest more in productive economic activity.
The businessman said his own experience of wealth had made the accumulation of additional personal possessions increasingly unimportant to him.
“There’s nothing that I’ve not seen,” he said.
He recalled acquiring his first aircraft at about 22 and spoke about his preference for a relatively settled private life.
“Once I come in in the evening, it’s difficult to take me out of my house.”
Dangote made a similar argument during Monday’s launch of the Dangote Petroleum Refinery initial public offering at the Nigerian Exchange, urging wealthy Nigerians spending heavily on private aircraft to redirect more of their capital towards productive investments.
In his interview, however, he connected the argument directly to the legacy he hopes to leave.
“My own real biggest—what do I want to leave as a legacy—is to industrialise Africa,” he said.
“I cannot do it alone, but I’m 100% sure in the next two, three years, other Africans will join.”
Dangote said foreign investors were increasingly interested in Africa but needed sufficiently large and viable investment opportunities capable of attracting substantial capital.
“Foreigners are very interested now, they want to invest in Africa, but they don’t have big-ticket items,” he said.
“So right now, they have started seeing big-ticket stuff, and they will join. And we will join to develop our own continent, Africa.”
Dangote’s industrial interests span refining, cement, fertiliser, petrochemicals and food, while his business group continues to pursue expansion across the continent.
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He said his ultimate ambition was no longer defined simply by the accumulation of personal wealth, but by helping to industrialise Africa and encouraging other investors to participate.
For the continent to develop, Dangote argued, private capital must increasingly move beyond spending on symbols of personal wealth and into factories and other productive assets capable of creating jobs, expanding manufacturing capacity and generating wider economic activity.
