Aliko Dangote, richest African businessman, needs to significantly grow revenue to push his group into the ranks of the 500 largest corporations in the world.
Last year’s group revenue of $4.1billion, although massive by Nigerian standards (approx 1.5trillion naira, but still just over $16billion dollars short of the cut-off point to join Fortune magazine’s list of the 500 biggest world companies. _And even over 1billion short of that of America’s 500. He is doing exactly that. New projects aimed at ramping up revenue include “the world’s largest single-train petroleum refinery”. This is being built at Ibeju-Lekki at a cost of $12billion.
Investments in sugar, rice and other commodities will gulp $4.6billion in the next three years. However, in the context of Nigeria, the perspective changes. Dangote is $4.1billion dollars is just over #1.4 trillion – more than the year’s budget for Lagos state and twice that of oil-rich Rivers state. It all goes to show, you can do well, even if you are not in the oil business – prone to cyclical price collapses – in which case, amortisation and interest payment could have a significant impact on enterprise health.
