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Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, was here. Forbes Magazine, that journal for the powerful and famous, says Dangote has made his fortune in cement, sugar and flour. Forbes ranks Dangote as the 67th richest person in the world and at one point, last year, he was world number 23. In February 2014, his net worth was $25 billion but this has reduced to around $18,6 billion as of January due to a weak Nigerian currency.

Dangote is said to have made his first fortune more than three decades ago when he started trading commodities with a loan from an uncle. His company, Dangote Group, operates in Nigeria, Benin, Cameroon, Ghana, South Africa, Togo, Tanzania and Zambia. Huge investments are his forte. For example, according to Forbes, in April 2014, he announced $9 billion in financing from a consortium of local and international lenders to construct a private oil refinery and fertiliser and petrochemical complex in the country.

In August 2014, he said he would invest $1 billion in commercial rice farming and modern rice mills. His publicly traded Dangote Cement is also grabbing new markets in Africa, with $750 million in new plants planned for Kenya and Niger. Zimbabwe is in the cusp of similar investments from this great man, African man, which could run into billions of dollars.

Dangote was here on Monday.
We did not treat him as royalty but he was given due attention and he met about every important person in the land, at least as far as business is concerned. He met the Head of State and Government, President Mugabe, and this shows just what seriousness this country accorded the visit of the magnate.

Do you know that in a country just north of our border, he reportedly failed to see the country’s president, who, we are told, was onto some other business which we doubt had anything to do with running a country. For the record, here is what one report from Zambia said a few months ago. The Watchdog reported that President Edgar Lungu failed to meet chairman of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, as he was reportedly indisposed.

“Sources at State House inform Watchdog that Mr Dangote, the richest man in Africa, visited Zambia on Thursday 30th April 2015 at the invitation of the Zambian government but was made to wait for hours at State House reception. “Dangote earlier met with Finance minister Alexander Chikwanda, before his pre-arranged meeting with Edgar Lungu in the evening of 30th April just after Lungu arrived from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.

“Dangote and his delegation were ushered into the waiting room at State House to wait for Lungu. “They waited for two hours at State House without meeting Lungu. “The State House staff after two hours informed the Dangote delegation that the President was indisposed and unable to meet Dangote and that they should return the following day,” said a source at State House.

“Dangote then said he could not return the next day as he had a busy schedule and was scheduled to travel elsewhere the next day.” We all hope that is not the truest account of what transpired in Zambia on that day. We are heartened, though, that indeed Dangote has gone on to invest in Zambia and early last month he opened a new factory in Ndola, Zambia’s third largest city.

President Lungu was in attendance. Dangote’s cement investment in Africa — he plans to build 16 mega factories — is now being hailed as the new oil. Thankfully, that oil, which seems realistic enough and does not need any phony prophesies, is within our touching distance. We can all hope.

And dream — the Dangote Dream.

The Dangote story is about the investment potential in Zimbabwe.

Here is a land of opportunity that has been imperilled by the hostile actions of the country’s detractors who are pursuing a regime change agenda by squeezing the country’s economy.

The disinvestment as well as the deindustrialisation that we have witnessed in the country are a contrivance of the country’s enemies. The same can be said of the perceived risk of doing business in the country. Zimbabwe is open for business. All bona fide investors know that and Dangote knows that only too well, that is why he came to meet the President and talk business.

It can be surmised that many will be following the path he has just beaten. There are quite a number of billionaires in the world who are interested in business, not politics. All they have to do is follow Africa’s great son who knows better. Foreign direct investment that, Holy Grail we always pine for, is finally here — and its face is the black face of Aliko Dangote.

We just hope that the usual suspects in America do not throw spanners in the works — which you must expect and pray against. America is not called the Great Satan for nothing. The Office of Foreign Assets Control can hound our Dangote monies and freeze and confiscate them. The one way to deal with this would be to divert our monies from the US system — the dollar is the international reserve currency — and quote the deal in Euro or Yuan or whatever currency of choice.

The sad thing is that it is America and its sanctions that make doing business with Zimbabwe risky, not the other way round. We had our own issues around the indigenisation laws, but these have been resolved and explained in detail, and the likes of Dangote can have all the latitude they deserve.

The following weeks and months will be definitive. We wait for the dream and pray the devil does not steal it from us.