xtina wrote:Still not sure what to think about this, I have been reading and researching on this and it seems pretty divided even among Nigerians on social media. While many Nigerians are very proud of Dangote and his Pan-African dreams, others feel he is DangoTAKE and all he does is take and take, he is no Rockefeller and is not the one to industrialise Africa.
A quote from Feyi, an author who has written extensively on Dangote. A link to one of his articles, where you can find other articles:
https://www.1914reader.c...ll-industrialise-africa At no point in his long career as an ‘industrialist’ has Dangote shown the slightest interest in technology ownership or mastery, in research and development, in innovation, or in actual problem-solving. His focus has always been narrower and surer: find something already innovated elsewhere, for which demand has already been proven, secure government backing to shut out its importation, and then squeeze every last drop of margin from the privileged position that results.Anyway as they say the devil is in the details. Once the IPO Memoranda documents are out nitachanua one by one, sentence by sentence to see whether the deal is worth it.
Sasa @Xtina.
I feel Feyi is being unfair to Dangote on the quoted part.
It is not the responsibility of Dangote to discover new things or technologies unless he feels they will make him and his companies money, improve processes, reduce costs etc. Of course he has definitely employed technologies whether existing or new but not the point I am raising.
I have listened to Dangote in a couple of interviews and he is very clear on his business approach which is simple and genius! He says he looks at what the country/ region etc. imports and he builds capacity for it - from cement, rice, fertiliser etc. with the latest being refined petroleum products which not only Nigeria but the entire Africa have had a problem solving. Africa produces 7% of the the world's crude oil but has on 3% refining capacity with only 50% of being active. Dangote has managed to sort that despite everyone including Nigerian government operatives saying it was not possible and him being fought every step of the way by the same government operatives and cartels!!
This is definitely a guy "I want to be in business with".
When I am investing, I invest based on either in the people (owners, management etc.) or in the business. Here both are super. Dangote is tried, tested and proven. The business is on point! He is solving a problem that already exists.
Never count on making a good sale. Have the purchase price be so attractive that even a mediocre sale gives good returns.