Cement, sugar, salt — the unglamorous essentials of a growing economy. Aliko Dangote built the Dangote Group around them until it became Africa's largest industrial conglomerate, and himself the continent's richest person.
The strategy was contrarian for its time and place. Africa exported raw material and imported the finished product; Dangote built the factories to do the finishing at home, on the bet that growth would reward whoever owned domestic capacity when the demand arrived.
While others exported raw materials, he built the factories to turn them into finished goods at home.
The largest expression of that is a refinery and petrochemical complex in Nigeria, among the biggest projects of its kind anywhere in the world. Its purpose is to end the absurdity of an oil-producing country importing its own fuel.
Whether or not every project lands, the thesis is coherent: Africa develops by industrialising rather than by extracting. Very few entrepreneurs are willing to attempt work of this scale and complexity on the continent, which is what makes him consequential well beyond his balance sheet.