Africa’s richest man, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, does not own any house outside Nigeria and up till now still lives in a rented house in Abuja. Here is why.

Owning houses overseas does not add value to my money, instead it diminishes my wealth as more money would be needed to maintain the house I do not live in and this means reducing the money I would have invested in my businesses to create more values and create more jobs for Nigerians, he explained to media executives at a weekend parley in the vast Dangote Refinery complex in Lekki, Lagos.

Dangote whose actions easily portray him as a patriot and nationalist said he prefers to stay in hotels overseas because he can only be charged for services rendered by the hotel.

“I don’t own a house, not even a nine-inch block outside Nigeria. Apart from Lagos and Kano, I don’t have any house anywhere. The house I live in at Abuja is on rent,” he told media executives at the parley.

Dangote explained he never wanted to be rich but to be wealthy. He said there is a difference between being rich and being wealthy.

“A rich person amasses money and more money for himself and immediate family but a wealthy man creates wealth for the society,” he explained as he took the media chiefs through the operations of his companies from fertiliser, petrochemical, agriculture, cement, sugar, among others.

Dangote said he opted to create wealth because the larger society benefits from it as against amassing cash for his family.

“If I wanted to just be rich, I would have invested in Google, Microsoft, or in Elon Musk’s projects and watch my money grow in dollars. But that way, the Nigerian and African society loses. I would not have bothered about building factories and creating jobs,” he said, adding “there is more fulfilment in what we are doing.”

Dangote has been a major contributor to Nigeria economy with daily payment of VAT now at N900 million, the highest by any private player.