In an interview with Bloomberg Market Magazine this month, Aliko Dangote revealed his intention to invest $20 billion to $50 billion in the U.S. and Europe by 2025, in industries including renewable energy and petrochemicals.
According to him, starting from 2020, 60% of his future investment will be outside Africa.
The 60-year-old Nigerian cement tycoon aims to move into these regions for the first time in 2020 after completing almost $5 billion of agricultural projects and an $11 billion oil refinery in Nigeria.
Dangote, has in the last five years diversified both geographically and into new industries.
In July, he announced that he would invest $4.6 billion in the next three years in sugar, rice and dairy production.
Also, Dangote Cement Plc, which accounts for almost 80% of his wealth was recently expanded into nine African countries aside from Nigeria. In 2015, he began building a 650,000 barrel-a-day refinery in Nigeria and he is constructing gas pipelines to Lagos from Nigeria’s oil region with U.S. private equity firms Carlyle Group LP and Blackstone Group LP.
Dangote, however dispelled the insinuations that he plans to invest in telecom or go into Nigerian politics, stating that he would stick to the businesses that he understands better.
Shares in Dangote Cement fell 4.9 percent to 214 naira in Lagos Wednesday, paring the advance this year to 23 percent.
Dangote currently worth $11.6 billion, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index.