I do not consider myself a journalist. Nobody else would consider myself a journalist. I began to take on the life of being an interviewer, even though i have a day job of running a private equity firm. How do you define leadership . What is it that makes somebody tick . Aliko dangote is widely known to be the wealthiest man in africa. So is that a title you are proud to have . Or is that one where you get so many people calling you for money that you wish you were not the wealthiest man in africa . Aliko first of all, david, it is great to be here and seeing you today. Well, you know, when they call you the wealthiest person in africa, it comes with a lot of baggage. There are so many demands. People come up with so many demands. But it is good because i like to give back to the society. David so right now, you are involved in many philanthropic endeavors. Lets go through some of them before we go to how you made this money. Recently, you had an event in new york with mo ibrahim, another very wealthy african, and bill gates in which you provided a fair amount of money to the African Center in harlem. What is the African Center and why did you do that . Aliko the idea started with Chelsea Clinton and my daughter. My daughter joined them later. We need to make it a reality. For us to be able to project africa in a better light. Bring africa to the rest of the world. Every september, we have the United Nations general assembly. What you want to do is to tell the real narrative of africa and tell the rest of the world what africa is all about. This has to do with policy, business, and culture. You know, because sometimes, you know, especially americans, they do not understand much about africa. You know, somebody will say to you, what kind of language do you speak . For example, in africa, we speak about 2000 different languages. David that is a lot. Aliko that is a lot. David one of the big problems in africa is health and you have been involved in trying to eradicate polio in nigeria along with bill gates and his foundation. What is the progress you have made to date . Aliko the progress has been tremendous. In the last three years, we have not had any wild virus of polio, and hopefully, we will work hard between now and the next six months, by april, we will be a poliofree country, which means the entire african continent will be polio free. David one of the things youre doing is building a hospital in nigeria. Why do you feel the need to build a new hospital . Aliko i think we need to build a worldclass hospital. Because when you look at nigeria, we spend a lot of money, where a lot of people go abroad for medical checkups and for medical operations. What we are trying to do is to give hope to the population to say look, you do not need to travel abroad. We will treat you there. David nigeria is the most populous country in africa, is that right . Buying domestically. We started cement in 1980 because we start of the business in 1978 and it started a rise. The cement was in local trading. It was not really an import business. David you had a cement trading business. Somebody thought of maybe buying it. You decided not to sell it. Because they wanted control. You decided to build your own cement manufacturing business. Is that right . Aliko yes. I decided in 2003 to build my own cement. At that time, we were only producing about 1. 8 million, 1. 9 million tons. But then we went to 5 million tons. David ok. So what year was that . Aliko this was we started at the end of 2003 and we finished in 2007. David so now you are the largest cement manufacturer in nigeria. Aliko well, the largest cement manufacturer in subsaharan africa. David so you are building a refinery in nigeria. Why does nigeria need another refinery . Aliko when you look at subsaharan africa, we have only two working refineries. David the cement business is the core of your wealth in your company, but you are now building other things. You are building a refinery in nigeria. Why does nigeria need another refinery . Aliko well, you know, david, let me give you a little bit of history. What we do at the group is we use businesses to build the future of the business. Like when we were in sugar, it was the sugar profit we used in building cement. Now in cement, we have built so many things in the refinery, petroleum products. Chemicals. With the refinery, why are we building refinery . When you look at subsaharan africa, you know, we have only two working refineries. Almost all of the subsaharan african countries, the modernity of the foreignexchange was petroleum. All of them are oil, but they import products. The majority was to take petroleum for the inputs. David so nigeria was exporting its oil and has to buy products back. So what you are doing is you are building one of the largest refineries in the world. Aliko it is the largest in the world, 650,000 barrels a day. David 650,000 barrels a day. Do you have to borrow some money . Where did the money come from . Aliko we are borrowing from the commercial banks. We are also borrowing some money from, you know, some financial institutions, like, you know, the african deployment bank, financial deployment, you know, bank. We are going from the african bank. David Many Companies outside of africa would like to invest in africa. Where would you recommend they invest . In nigeria, south africa, kenya . Obviously, you are probably partial to nigeria, but are there good Investment Opportunities for nonafricans in africa . Aliko there are opportunities for everybody. As we speak today, even following let me give you an example. In nigeria, if i have a partnership with you, and i am investing, i will not have what you call minimum taxation. The companys formed by myself alone, as a nigerian owner, a nigerian alone, i have minimum taxation. That is quite a lot in terms of inviting those to invest in africa. There are many countries in which to invest. One of them, of course, nigeria. Ghana is also a very good place to invest. You know, kenya, kenya is also a very good place to invest. David i first met you and number of years ago when i was raising my firms African Investment fund, and you invested in it. Today, the boom seems to be off the rose in african private investing. It was more attractive 5, 6 years ago. Today, it seems to be less attractive. Is that because economies in africa have gone down a bit . Or what would you say is the reason . Aliko most of that has to do with lack of understanding of where to invest. Look at the investments that were made. I think 90 of whatever we invested, they were. I think it is where you should invest. Even myself as an african, i cannot invest in every single sector, so i have to be very choosy of where i invest. There is a lots of wrong perception. You know, people read stories from newspapers, and they believe what they are reading. But i think, you know, as we go along, you know, there are quite a lot of changes in most african countries, trying to change in terms of the focus on the economy. David you live principally in lagos. Is that right . Aliko yes, i do. David how any people are there in lagos . Aliko we have about 25 million. David 25 million people. Aliko yes, in terms of population. David getting around in lagos, which i have tried to do, is not that easy. Getting around in new york is not that easy, either. Do you have special police cars that take you around . How do you get around in lagos . Aliko i get around in lagos, sometimes i have a Police Escort but not all the time. I can drive myself. David you drive yourself . Aliko yes, i do. David do people stare at you . There is the wealthiest man in africa driving himself . Aliko they do sometimes. [laughs] david when you go to a restaurant by yourself, do they come up for selfies or do they ask you for money . Aliko they dont really ask me for money. Any time when i go to places to either eat, you know, i get a lot of requests for selfies. It is normal. David you have some outside interests. One of them i think you are interested in, what we call in the United States, is soccer. What other people call football. The arsenal team. Is that a team you would like to buy someday . Aliko it is a team that, yes, i would like to buy someday. But also i keep saying today, we have 20 billion worth of projects. I think that is really what i want to concentrate on. You know, i am trying to finish building a company. After we finished, maybe sometime in 2021 david so you are not buying a team right now . Aliko i am not by an arsenal right now. I am buying arsenal because i am trying to take the company to the next level. David what are the attributes that you think you have brought to the table which make you successful . Aliko i think the most important, number one, if you are going into any business, you must understand the business, a to z. You must know that business. David in terms of africa itself, generally, are you bullish on africas prospect for a place for people or Industrial Companies to invest . Aliko i think i am very, very bullish when it comes to africa. We have 20 billion i invest at home. In the first quarter, just in the next year. I am very, very bullish. I have done very well in africa. You know, i can tell you, if we continue with what we are doing today, based on our own projections, we will be able to, you know, within the next five years, the fortune 500. David from time to time, i see on Television Networks advertisements for dangote, for your company. Why do you advertise in the United States the dangote brand, when most of your businesses are not in the United States . Aliko it is a brand building. I want to invest outside of africa. Because what we are doing right now, you know, we are investing in subsaharan africa. But if you look at what we are building today, we have a company that has revenues of 4 billion. In the next two years, we will have a company that will have a revenue of about 30 billion. So with that, we will have quite a lot of money. What we are trying to do is use a major part of that money and invest outside africa. And maybe 40 very, very heavy. David you are in your early 60s. Aliko yeah, i am 62. David 62. That is pretty early 60s. Do you intend to keep doing this for 20 more years, 30 more years . Aliko i dont like to commit, but i think i will maybe work for the next, at least, very active in the next 15 years. David lets say somebody is watching this and says i want to be like mr. Dangote. I want to be a successful businessman in africa. What are the attributes you think you have brought to the table which make you successful . Is it intelligence, hard work, persistence . What are the most important attributes . Aliko i think the most important, number one, if you are going into a business, you must understand the business. You must know the business. You have to understand the business in and out. That is the difference with me. I know my business in and out. You can wake me up anytime and ask me about fertilizer, anything that we are doing. The other one is really to work very hard. You have to have the tenacity. You will have some hiccups here and there, but you have to be focused in terms of what you are doing. David now, i have known you for a while, and i never seem to get you to yell or scream. You seem very lowkey. You do not use the technique of yelling and screaming at people. You are just very lowkey and even keel . To what do you attribute that . Or am i wrong . Aliko you are not wrong. That is my nature. I am very quiet, and i am very very calm. I get upset sometimes when people try to outsmart me. I dont like people who will not tell me the truth. I like people to look at me and tell me the truth. David were you investing any in the United States . Aliko we are going to start investing in United States. We want to open an office in new york. We already have an office in london. We want to have a family office. As you know, i have discussed this with you before, sometimes in africa, you have issues of devaluation. So we really want to preserve. David right. Sometimes wealthy people collect art, they collect cars, other things. What do you do with some of your wealth that you are not using for philanthropy . Aliko any time when i have excess money, i like to put more into charity. I dont really have an expensive lifestyle. David cant the great pleasure of your life is building your company and giving away extra money . Aliko yes. David well, it is a very good success story, and i know a lot of people wanted to hear how you have done it, and i guess you are saying it is hard work and persistence, a little luck maybe from time to time. Thank you very much for coming today. I appreciate you giving us your insights. Aliko thank you so much, david. Brad he grew up in what he calls the peoples republic of berkeley, a liberal city on the east shore of the San Francisco bay. As a child, he played football while reciting rap lyrics and