ALIKO DANGOTE, the wealthiest man in Africa has said in an interview with David Rubenstein of Bloomberg TV that he would be diversifying part of his wealth to the US and later Europe, which he has started by launching plans to open an office in New York.

According to Dangote, part of the reason he is making this decision is the major issue of currency fluctuations in Africa; the outcome of currency fluctuation is a floating exchange rate.

He stated in the interview that, his company would generate a revenue of $30 billion dollars and 40 percent of this money would continue to be invested in the sub-Saharan region and 60 percent in Europe. What this would be for Africa and Nigeria most importantly is Dangote is spreading across continents to secure his investments and have a wider coverage of investment all over the world.

His plans for diversifying would not be earlier than 2 years time, which means Nigeria can still take advantage of his investments like the refinery he is building and broaden it to create employment and have a world-class domestic refinery that would save Nigeria a lot of foreign exchange burden in the long run.

Rubenstein also confirmed that the Dangote cement and sugar billboards are gradually circulating across New York City, Dangote answered and said ” We are in the brand-building phase in New York”

“We are not only going to remain dominant in Africa, but we are also going to invest outside Africa,” Dangote said.

No doubt when investments are diversified, there would most definitely be an impact of the previous sole beneficiary of the investment. Moreover, as a businessman, he is looking at 3 key things, minimizing risk of loss, preserving capital and generating returns.

His conglomerate, Dangote Industries, includes the Lagos-listed Dangote Cement Plc and four other publicly traded companies under the Dangote umbrella that account for more than a fifth of the value of the Nigerian stock exchange.