Dangote sets tone for Africa’s industrial bloc

Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote has set the
tone for a stronger and highly competitive
industrial bloc in Africa, Harvard Business
School (HBS), said in a report.
In the report, entitled: ‘ Nigeria’s Big Gamble
on One Indigenous Entrepreneur,’ and carried
out by two of its Professors, Tarun Khanna and
Krishna Palepu, it said Dangote has the
potentials to rivaling Samsung, a conglomerate
which has become a driving force in Korean’s
economy.
The report said: “Samsung started off as a
trading company, evolved to textiles and food
processing, and then on to high-value added
manufacturing. Today their business spans
electronics, shipbuilding, construction and
aerospace, among many other industries.
Samsung’s story is a microcosm of the Korean
growth miracle. Similarly Dangote’s business,
which has already transformed from a trading
company to a manufacturer of cement and
flour, could now be moving into a new phase
of higher value-added products. This step into
more complex “jobs”, may also draw other
African conglomerates into the mix, and create
a platform for rapid industrialization.
It said Dangote, being an insider with political
connections at the highest level, is better
positioned to directly fill the market’s voids
and deal with the political risks which many
foreign companies with interest in Nigeria
cannot do.
According to the report, Chinese investors’
success in countries such as Angola and Sudan
cannot be translated to Nigeria because they
do not understand the complex mix of political
dynamism in Nigeria.