HARARE – Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote has called on African nations to rely on home-grown capital and invest in value addition of their natural resources, saying this is the only sustainable path to economic transformation and job creation across the continent.
Dangote, Africa’s richest man and one of its most influential industrialists, was in Harare this week for meetings with senior government officials and business leaders ahead of the finalisation of a US$1 billion investment project in Zimbabwe.
During his visit, Dangote delivered a series of impassioned remarks that underscored his belief in African self-reliance, speaking largely off-the-cuff and drawing from deeply held convictions. He emphasised that Africa’s vast natural resources must be beneficiated locally to create industries and employment opportunities for the continent’s growing youth population.
“African capital is key to the development of the African continent,” Dangote said, stressing that the time for African nations to depend on external capital is over.
In a particularly striking reflection, Dangote challenged the notion that smaller economies, such as Zimbabwe, lack the capacity to compete globally. He cited Singapore as a model of how strategic vision and trade expansion can overcome geographic limitations.
“A country is as big as its trade hinterland,” Dangote observed. “Small countries and economies are cheaper sites of production, and awakened African capital must look beyond national markets.”
The industrial magnate also revealed that his company now supplies phosphates to the United States, an example he said demonstrates that African enterprises can achieve global competitiveness if they invest in production and innovation.
The visit also drew senior members of Zimbabwe’s cabinet to the State House in Harare, where Bard Santner Markets Inc. Chief Executive Senziwani Sikhosana joined ministers and officials awaiting President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s meeting with Dangote. Among those present were Transport Minister Felix Mhona, Mines Minister Winston Chitando, Foreign Affairs Minister Amon Murwira, and Home Affairs Minister Kazembe Kazembe, among others.
As one participant observed, Dangote’s message offered more than an investment pitch — it was a Pan-African manifesto for economic independence, urging African nations to merge entrepreneurial ambition with continental solidarity.
