BBC Africa Enterprise host Nancy Kacungira in an interview with billionaire businessman Aliko Dangote/BBCAfrica's economic prosperity will depend on its ability to create jobs and build productive industries rather than continue talking about its vast economic potential, billionaire businessman and Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, has said.
Dangote said the continent's young population needs opportunities that could translate its potential into tangible prosperity.
“We have a very young population. This population that we have, the younger ones, they are very, very hungry, they are very aggressive,” Dangote said in an exclusive interview with BBC business journalist Nancy Kacungira.
The interview featured in the first episode of BBC Africa Enterprise, a new weekly business programme launched on Monday that examines the businesses, entrepreneurs and economic forces shaping the continent’s economy.
Dangote said African economies had a responsibility to provide livelihoods and opportunities for young people rather than wait for external actors to drive the continent's development.
“Nobody, and I repeat, nobody will come and drive it for us,” he said.
Dangote said Africa had for years been described as a continent of enormous potential but argued that potential would mean little unless it translated into production.
“You have to put that potential into reality,” he said.
For Dangote, one of the clearest ways of doing so is through large-scale industrial investment capable of creating jobs while reducing Africa's dependence on imported products.
The recently commissioned oil refinery in Kenya, he said, is one example. The 700,000-barrel-per-day facility is being developed as an East African refinery intended to supply a wider regional market.
“We're really planning something very big within the African continent, and a lot of people say: ‘OK, well, does that refinery in East Africa make sense?’ It makes a lot of sense because the refinery is not only for Kenya. That's why we are calling it an East African refinery; to serve a lot of countries, up to even Egypt,” he said.
Dangote said the project would support efforts to make African countries more self-sufficient in meeting their energy needs, alongside investments in areas such as fertiliser.
“It's going to have a massive impact. It also guarantees the countries getting their own products. They are not going to live hand to mouth and then, you know, the refinery is there. It's for them,” he said.
He also called for greater regional trade, saying implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area would help unlock opportunities by allowing businesses to operate across a larger continental market.
The billionaire argued that Africa's population could become an economic strength if countries built the industries needed to employ and serve it.
“You have one quarter of the world's population…and you are not producing anything. If you are not productive, how do you create prosperity? I pray very soon we'll be able to sign on this African free trade agreement. Once we sign it, the growth will be there,” he said.
BBC Africa Enterprise, launched by BBC Studios and BBC News, brings some of Africa's leading business figures into conversations about investment, entrepreneurship, industry and the continent's economic future.
