In Saturday’s Wall Street Journal, there is an interesting article about Aliko Dangote, a Nigerian businessman who is the world’s wealthiest African. Dangote make his money in the cement business, and now owns businesses in 16 countries throughout Africa. His current net worth is $22 billion.
Dangote got his start in the 1970s. He obtained a government permit to import cement into Nigeria, but spent most of his time traveling the world partying in places like Atlanta and Brazil. During one trip to Brazil, he saw cement plants being built around the country and realized that Nigeria – and most other African countries — didn’t produce its own cement. With Africa experiencing a building boom, he realized that demand for cement would go through the roof across the continent.
Dangote went home, and by the turn of the century received permission to build one of the world’s largest cement plants. He borrowed $1 billion (at 42 % interest) to build the cement plant and an airport. With demand for cement surging on the continent, he became a billionaire by 2007. Today he is building cement plants in 14 countries across Africa, and has branched out into mining, sugar, salt and noodle production. He is currently worth $22 billion.
Dangote recently announced plans to quintuple his net worth to well over $100 billion by betting big on the oil business. He realized that like cement, Nigeria imports most of its refined petroleum products – such as gas, kerosene and jet fuel – even though it is one of the world’s largest producers of oil. So he is raising $9 billion to build Africa’s largest oil refinery.
It is a safe bet. The International Energy Agency says that oil consumption in Africa will increase over 30 percent in the next five years. Dangote, with his new refinery, will be able to meet this demand. And since he will be pumping as well as refining the oil, he will be able to compete with any oil company in the world.
That is the type of thing that African-Americans need to emulate. His formula for success is simple – find a need for his people and fill it. Africans needed cement, so he builds a factory to supply it. Africans need gas, kerosene and jet fuel, so he is building an oil refinery to supply it. He is getting wealthy by meeting the needs of his people.
The people who are referred to as our “leaders” are running around talking about “economic justice” and income inequality. They are telling people that economic inequality is getting larger and we need some sort of government action and higher taxes to make things “more equal.”
These idiots should listen to Warren Ballentine. Every day on his radio show, he plays an audio clip that explains why Blacks are at the bottom of the economic ladder. The audio states that Asians have the highest income because one out of every ten Asians own a business, but that only one out of every 107 Blacks own a business. Blacks own businesses a far lower rate than any other ethnic group in America. That is why we have the lowest income and net worth.
Our problem is that we pay more attention to people who believe that our problems can be solved by taxing the assets of people who own stuff and giving it to people who don’t, and less to people like Dangote, who believes in building and owning stuff. We must concentrate on building wealth, not as President Obama says, in spreading it around. We cannot rely on other people to build stuff and then demand a piece of it. Our salvation lies in building our own and serving our own community.
That is one lesson I hope we learn in 2014.
