Aliko Dangote, a serial entrepreneur and Africa’s richest man, says he is planning to open offices in the United States of America and London to protect his family’s wealth from devaluation.
The billionaire was speaking in an interview with Bloomberg’s David Rubenstein.
In 2016 when Nigeria’s economy was in a recession and the Central Bank of Nigeria devalued the naira to N250 from N197, Bloomberg’s Billionaire Index estimated that he lost $5.4 billion which was N1.35 trillion at the time.
“We are going to start investing in the United States after this our project, we want to open a family office in New York and in London.
“We already have an office in London that has been in operation for the last 30 years so we want to turn part of that to a family office so that we can diversify the worth. Sometimes in Africa, we have issues of devaluation so we want to preserve some of the family’s worth.”
Dangote became $4.3 billion richer in 2019 with his business investments in cement, flour and sugar.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the 62-year-old businessman ended the year with a net worth of almost $15 billion, making him the 96th wealthiest man in the world at the end of 2019.
Dangote holds 85.2% stake in Dangote Cement and has shares in other companies like Dangote Sugar, Nascon Allied Industries, Dangote Flour Mills and United Bank for Africa.
Dangote incorporated his own business selling cement at 21 and begun cement manufacturing in the 1990s.
He has a crude oil refinery currently valued at $12 billion oil refinery under construction.