President of Dangote Industries Limited, Aliko Dangote, has dismissed claims that he uses his influence to shut down competition.
The billionaire stated that his success results from strategic investment and entrepreneurship, not special treatment or restrictive policies.
In a Thursday feature by Bloomberg, it was alleged that some of Dangote’s greatest successes occurred in sectors where imports are banned or restricted, including sugar and cement.
The report recalled that in 2007, then-US Consul General Brian Browne cited criticisms of Dangote’s practices in a private cable published by WikiLeaks.
“To detractors, he is a predator using connections in a corrupt political economy to tilt the playing field in his favour and sideline potential competition.
“It is no coincidence that many products on Nigeria’s import ban lists are items in which Dangote has major interests,” Browne wrote.
Dangote, who highly regards Browne, countered that imports of the products in question were not banned at the time.
He argued that he simply capitalised on opportunities that others failed to exploit.
“If you are going to call first movers into business monopolists, then you will never establish a manufacturing base, or you’ll never establish anything that you call a country,” Dangote said.
He admitted the stress of getting his $20 billion oil refinery operational, noting the challenges posed by Nigeria’s limited public services.
“Right from the beginning of building the refinery, we realised that nobody could provide us with any service. You have to provide almost everything by yourself,” Dangote said.
Reflecting on the ordeal, he added, “If I knew what I was going to go through, I wouldn’t have tried it.”
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Dangote’s net worth has risen by about $1 billion over the past three months to $28 billion, buoyed by the refinery’s ramp-up, which has made Nigeria a net exporter of petroleum products for the first time in three decades.
Dangote denied any wrongdoing, including preferential foreign exchange access in building the refinery.
“We have made our money clean. We are not part of the corruption. We are part of the problem-solving,” he said.
