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Aliko Dangote

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68
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2026-05-13
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2026-05-13
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1
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  1. “This is a Well, you know, but I mean, that is how we had to actually now, because we are building something and luckily, let me tell you what you don't know. Luckily for us, we didn't know what we are building. Because if you knew I was faced with the plan and the drawings all at once, I wouldn't have built this refinery. I would have actually chicken out Yes, because I mean, you know, when we started, you know, it's like you started swimming across the ocean. When you get middle of the ocean, you realize that the tide was. When you go forward, it's bad when you go backwards. So you have to work forward, and that is what we did. We had to just keep working and working and believing that we will deliver.”

    2026-05-13 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Aliko Dangote: Building Africa's industrial future from the ground up · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “We have to do water. Water is 440 million liters of water, which is treated water. So our water department alone. Is more than, let me say, in hectare is more than 30 hectares.”

    2026-05-13 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Aliko Dangote: Building Africa's industrial future from the ground up · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “We still went ahead, we had to build our port because there was no port in the country that could take those heavy equipment. One piece was 3,000 tons. We have another, which is the regenerator. Then we have another piece, which is the crude deslation unit. That one is 2,700 tons. So we have almost about 30 of these equipments and we build the refinery importing most of these preheaters in modular forms.”

    2026-05-13 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Aliko Dangote: Building Africa's industrial future from the ground up · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  4. “So we started with that. We launched the project in 2013. We have had issues of the land for five years, one land three and a half years, the other land one and a half years that we have not been able to get even access to it. All this we've been blocked by what you call the mafia in oil business to make sure that we don't come and address these issues. But we were not deterred at all. We were actually focused. We knew what we were doing. And Nicola, when we started, right? The exchange rate of Nera was 156. We even got up to 1,900.”

    2026-05-13 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Aliko Dangote: Building Africa's industrial future from the ground up · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “Now, again, when you look at oil in Africa, we have a lot of countries that produce oil, but they don't refine. So they export the crude oil, and now they import the products. Importation costs a lot of money. It actually goes deep into our own reserves. So when I look at Nigeria, for example, today, I say, okay, fine, but we've been having fuel queues for 52 years. Sometimes people used to stay at field during Christmas, you might have to go and cure for two days. To buy fuel for a country that produces oil. And we have tried government refineries, they are all destroyed, they are not really doing well. So we say, okay, fine. Let me take this bold decision.”

    2026-05-13 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Aliko Dangote: Building Africa's industrial future from the ground up · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “Actually, major decision is to now go into cement in trying to save a lot of African countries because they are struggling. Cement was selling for 250. A ton in countries like Zambia, in Congo, Brazil, in Nigeria, you have to pay and wait for three months. So we realized that look, people who are in cement, they are not really serious about making cement available. So we now came in and we have now invested heavily.”

    2026-05-13 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Aliko Dangote: Building Africa's industrial future from the ground up · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “All our business because if you look at demoture industries right from inception to date, we have never ever paid any dividend. If we are going to get dividend, we only get it from companies that we listed. But companies that are wholly owned but don't go to industries, which they are not listed, we never ever take a dime out of the company.”

    2026-05-13 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Aliko Dangote: Building Africa's industrial future from the ground up · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  8. “If you don't want Nera, you don't want to de risk, you know, because most foreign investors sometimes, when they invest in a company, what actually matters to them is that when they get their dividend, it's difficult to also get money to buy and remit your money. But we have addressed that issue. We are saying that look, invest.”

    2026-05-13 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Aliko Dangote: Building Africa's industrial future from the ground up · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  9. “I exited that, yes, because of the foreign exchange challenges. That is why we left the flower mill. But today, we are very, very good in terms of exports. If you look at it now, part of what we are announcing is that when you invest in any of our business going forward in the cement, for example, in the refinery, in the petrochemical, in the fertilizer, in the port, we guarantee to pay you dividend in dollars because we are very well into exports. 80% of our revenue will be in dollars. So that is why we are now saying that, look, yes, you can have a choice if you want for locals. We can pay you in Naira.”

    2026-05-13 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Aliko Dangote: Building Africa's industrial future from the ground up · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  10. “Well, I first of all look at what we need People, what is it that we're supposed to be producing and we're importing? So we do what you call backward integration, which means what we are importing now, we produce it. We produce what we need. And we are now producing things that when you wake up as a human being, every morning you must use part of what we produce.”

    2026-05-13 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Aliko Dangote: Building Africa's industrial future from the ground up · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  11. “Property. So now my life is very simple wherever I go, I use hotels, I pay when I leave, nobody will call me and say I have a bus pipe or something is wrong. So I'm committed to what I do. And I just don't do things of it. I always create a vision. It's just like now we created a vision 2030 so that I know I have a target to meet Just don't do business on a normal, they say, no, no, all my businesses, they are targeted.”

    2026-05-13 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Aliko Dangote: Building Africa's industrial future from the ground up · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  12. “Close to 70 years. I'm 69. I turned 69 just a month ago. Actually, about three weeks ago, I turned to 69. But I think that discipline. Good because I don't want to let me tell you something, you know, Nikola. For example, when I decided to go into industry. Know what I did? I sold all my properties in the US. I had two houses in the US, big mansions, and I had a house in UK. And I wanted to really sit in Nigeria and concentrate. Why? You know, sometimes when you own a house, a holiday home anywhere, you have to create that time to go and use that.”

    2026-05-13 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Aliko Dangote: Building Africa's industrial future from the ground up · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  13. “I love what I do. So when you look at the business, for example, today, right, why is it that people see that I work so hard? Do you know why? Because my business is actually my hobby. Take my business as a hobby because if I take it as a job, I won't work this hard. I Me give you an example. I go to bed. Maybe sometimes 112, but I wake up around 5 in the morning, I go to the gym. By 7.30, 8, I'm done, then I go to my office. And I work as hard as any stuff.”

    2026-05-13 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Aliko Dangote: Building Africa's industrial future from the ground up · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  14. “First of all, to be very honest, to make sure that you fair to everybody, to be also generous. He was very generous to tell you how generous he was, he gave out all his assets and money before he passed. And then also in terms of business, he has always been very, very, very, very fair.”

    2026-05-13 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Aliko Dangote: Building Africa's industrial future from the ground up · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  15. “First of all, it's actually discipline. Have to be very, very disciplined. You have to know what trading is not that you'll be Jacob all trades. You must choose what do you really want to do for your life. And then you pick up and concentrate on that. And then pleasure and business, they don't mix at all. And that is the kind of discipline that I got. My grandfather used to start working from six in the morning. and he walked till late, had a very simple life. Some days he drives himself. That is how simple that he was. Very disciplined, honest person. I actually took a lot of things from him.”

    2026-05-13 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Aliko Dangote: Building Africa's industrial future from the ground up · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  16. “Who taught me how to trade? He sent me to school and this, but then actually I never ever grew with my father. I've never stayed with my father. You know, because when I was born, I was the first grandson. You know, in our tradition, first grandchild will now go and stay with grandparents. So my sister, my late sister happened to be the first grandchild. So they took her away. And then the next was me, a boy. So they also took me away. So both me and my sister, we grew up with my own grandparents. Wow. Yes”

    2026-05-13 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Aliko Dangote: Building Africa's industrial future from the ground up · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  17. “Several generations. Your grand. My great grand from the maternal side. My mom's grandfather, they call him Alhassan Dantata, he was actually even trading, you know, Nigeria, Ghana, you know, and he died in 1955 before I was born. But he was the richest West African at that time during his time. And of course, my own late grandfather, Sonu Sidantata, he was actually the richest Nigerian two at some point.”

    2026-05-13 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Aliko Dangote: Building Africa's industrial future from the ground up · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  18. “Cement that I started first with cement. I was getting four or five trucks and trading them there in Lagos. And then later on I got into fish, into rice, into sugar. And, you know, we continue to expand. My first import of sugar was actually in 1980, you know, and everything was under import license. So I got a license.”

    2026-05-13 · In Good Company with Nicolai Tangen · Aliko Dangote: Building Africa's industrial future from the ground up · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source