Africa’s wealthiest individual, Aliko Dangote, has refuted allegations that his companies hold a monopoly, emphasizing that this is not the case.
Dangote made these comments on Saturday during a meeting with the leadership of the House of Representatives, headed by Speaker Tajudeen Abbas and his deputy, Benjamin Kalu.
He expressed disappointment at the characterization of his companies as monopolistic, stating that they have never hindered others from entering the same line of business.
He said: “If you look at all our operations at Dangote (Group), we add value; we take local raw materials and turn them into products, and we sell.
“We have never consciously or unconsciously stopped anybody from doing the same business that we are doing.
“When we first came into cement production, it was only Lafarge that was operating here in Nigeria…Nobody ever called Lafarge a monopoly,” he said, adding that labelling his group of companies as monopolistic is disheartening.
“Monopoly is when you stop people, you block them through legal means. No, it is a level playing field whereby whatever Dangote was given in cement, for example, other people were given because some of them even got more than us,” he said.
