The Trophies Of Dangote Are Africa Wide, Hence He Is Known As The Richest Man In The Continent
The Oasis Reporters
June 22, 2024
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Africa is resource rich. It is the resources of Africa that has always attracted the world to Africa for centuries like bees to a honey pot. The entry to explore Africa from end to end has always come with the good as well as the bad. And in some cases, the downright and despicably ugly.
Africa was thus commonly exploited, abused and exploited.
All that had happened because the continent lacked the knowledge to understand what God has endowed it with.
The ignorance or knowledge gap persisted for many centuries as it’s people suffered the scourge of slavery, colonialism and poverty.
But that was for as long as it lasted. This was a period when all of Africa’s resources were carted from Africa to Europe and the rest of the world. These raw materials were used and are still being used to power the industrialization of the rest of the world to make industries bloom and the owners of industry stupendously wealthy while the repository of the raw materials powering industrial growth is very poor.
The industrialization of Europe and the rest of the world has thus attracted many young people from Africa, with many crossing dangerous frontiers to escape to Europe and the rest of the industrialized world in a desperate bid to change their circumstances.
From slavery days when African people were forcibly transported abroad for cheap labor through dehumanizing conditions to the period when Africans went to Europe and the rest of the world through tortuous routes to leave the continent in a move to change their narrative, a time came when realization dawned that Africa can make a change by leading change from within and using the power within and the resources in Africa to change the story.
For Africa to rise, the continent had to invest in the education industry. The knowledge gap had to be bridged and the industrial gap had to follow suit.
And God gave us men and women to lead the vanguard and many more men and women to sustain the move. That did not mean that it would be a walk in the park. Definitely, the continent waking up is bound to provoke fear and envy in the lives of those who preferred the continent to remain poor for their exploitation to continue.
Those people are bound to resist and fight the rising giant. Possibly to prevent the rise of the sleeping giant.
But God gave us men.
When the time came for a factor of production to rise in Africa, General Ibrahim Babangida happened in Nigeria as military Head of State. The man was inspired to open up the banking sector and allow young Nigerian men and women to step up and own their own banking businesses.
Well, if you haven’t read the book, Africa Rise Ànd Shine (How a Nigerian Entrepreneur from Humble Beginnings Grew a Business to $16 Billion) by Jim Ovia and published by ForbesBooks, look for it and read it.
The book has inspired me, ever since I owned a copy some few years back. Well, the author of the book is Jim Ovia, the founder of the most profitable bank in Nigeria.
Zenith Bank Plc has always led across all the major matrices to gauge the banking sector in the country. And the inspirational founder has so structured the bank that it has a succession planning through in-house grooming and mentorship that has kept it on its pedestal of growth, and it keeps rising.
Well, the push of the story here is to talk about the many trophies of Africa’s richest man, Alhaji Aliko Dangote. He is an industrialist per excellence.
From food manufacturing to the Cement industry, into crude oil refining, and now venturing into the assembly of trucks (he has a partnership with Sinotruck to produce one truck every hour at his new Assembly plant in Lagos).
And what powers the industries?
It is finance. Therefore when Zenith Bank’s Managing Director/Chief Executive decided to lead a team of the bank’s executives on a visit to Africa’s leading industrialist in his Lagos base, I was also watching out for something else. The trophies that adorn his office.
The trophies are mostly with motifs of Africa. My eyes caught them in the photo ops.
Little wonder Julius Malema spoke in an awe laden voice, “Nigerian Banks are owned by Black Nigerians!”
Listen to South Africa's @Julius_S_Malema and learn about WHO and WHAT Nigerians are! In terms of speaking truth to power and courage he reminds me of @MaziNnamdiKanu and @realffk. The future of Africa belongs to US! Whether the system likes it or not WE shall rise! HEAR HIM… pic.twitter.com/IUwDwUZWyZ
— Femi Fani-Kayode (@realFFK) September 15, 2019
If you know who Julius Malema is and where he is coming from (which is South Africa), you would understand the source of his admiration.
Zenith Bank, going over to visit Alhaji Aliko Dangote in one of her first engagements since assuming office as the first of the feminine gender to lead the bank in the capacity of Managing Director/Chief Executive, Dame (Dr) Adaora Umeoji is emphasizing the synergy that has to be sustained between industry and the lubricant behind it, which is the power of finance.
By Greg Abolo
gregabolo@gmail.com
