Africa's richest man-Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote says he withdrew $10 million just to loo
Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote, known as Africa's richest man, told a forum in Ivory Coast on Saturday how he once took $10 million in cash out of the bank just to look at it and get it into his head that this was real money, not just figures on paper.
"When you're young your first million is important, but after, the numbers don't mean much," Dangote, a manufacturing tycoon with a range of companies spanning cement to flour, told the Mo Ibrahim forum in Abidjan.
"One day, I cashed 10 million, put them in the boot of my car I put it in my room. I looked at them and thought 'now I believe I have money' and took it back to the bank the next day," he told his audience.
Anecdotes aside, Dangote said that the two most promising sectors for Africa's future were agriculture and new technologies. But he advised young African entrepreneurs not to get carried away by the first flush of success.
"Often in Africa we spend our projected incomes. There are ups and downs" in business, he warned.
Dangote said he regretted the customs and administrative problems that hamper business development throughout the continent.
As an example, he cited the difficulties his cement group faces in exporting to Benin from Nigerian factories 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the border. Benin imported "more expensive" cement from China instead.
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See pictures of some Almajiris (beggars)
See pictures of some dilapidated schools buildings
My view: Oh well good for Aliko Dangote, that he 'withdrew $10million just to look at it' and convince himself that he was rich. This is what Bill Gate will never do, if it was Gate, he'll not pay the money back into his account, instead he'll invest it in Nigeria's Healthcare System and other countries around the world. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has so far invested over $1 billion in Nigeria's health care system, that's Dangote's own country, even in Dangote's home state of Kano, Bill Gate is helping them as well. Why can't Dangote and all the other Nigerian Billionaires do what Gate is doing, why should Bill Gate spend his own money in a country where you have selfish and greedy oil billionaires who are only saving the money for their children to inherit, while there are so many school children suffering in Nigeria and many Dangerous and dilapidated school buildings. Also in Dangote's home state of Kano there are over 3-million Almajiris (beggars) carrying bowls to beg for food, because of poverty and you have this arrogant billionaire revealing on live TV that he withdrew $10million, just to look at it, money that'll feed 150 million people for 50 years or more. Kano has highest out-of-school children’ and almajiris, yet the richest man in Africa Dangote, is so proud to have suffering children roam the streets in his home state , while he add more to his billions, so no one takes the number one spot of richest man in Africa from him, so sad. Dangote is worth over 10.6 billion USD 2019. He is ranked by Forbes magazine as the 100th-richest person in the world and the richest in Africa.