Aliko Dangote, the president of the Dangote Group, has expressed sorrow for not being able to purchase Arsenal, a Premiership football team, when he had the ambition to own a football team.
The business tycoon expressed sorrow for not purchasing the English club at the $2 billion mark.
He made this claim on Monday, September 23, in a New York interview with Francine Lacqua of Bloomberg.
Dangote claimed that rather than purchasing Arsenal Football Club, he chose to utilize his money to construct a refinery.
The billionaire declared that he would no longer think about buying the team.
“But you know everything has gone up and the club too is doing very well, Arsenal is doing extremely well right now. That time, Arsenal wasn’t doing well.
“I think I don’t have that kind of excess liquidity to go and buy a club for $4 billion so to speak and use it as a promotional something.
“But what I will do is to continually be the biggest fan of Arsenal. I watch their games anytime they are playing. So, I will remain a major supporter of Arsenal but I don’t think it makes sense today to buy Arsenal,” Dangote declared.
In 2020, following the start of construction on his refinery, Dangote indicated interest in purchasing Arsenal Football Club. However, he ultimately decided to concentrate on the refinery.
In the Bloomberg interview, Dangote called on the Nigerian government to do away with the fuel subsidy program, pointing out that it is an expensive measure.
He emphasized that fuel subsidies cause the government to “paying what they are not supposed to be paying,” which is a strong argument in favor of eliminating the subsidy completely.
Dangote emphasized that the administration of President Bola Tinubu could not afford to keep paying for gasoline subsidies.
In his inaugural speech on May 29, 2023, President Tinubu announced the elimination of fuel subsidies; but, media sources revealed that, in response to growing inflation, he secretly reintroduced them.
Dangote’s demand to remove fuel subsidies coincides with the opening of his massive refinery in Lagos.
One expectation following the Dangote Petrochemical Refinery’s entry into Nigeria’s downstream petroleum sector is the potential for gasoline prices to drop.
As a result of the uprising, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL), which is the product’s lone importer, raised the price of gasoline, causing it to soar instead of fall.
