Botswana wants Aliko Dangote to build its cement, and its rail line, and more

President Duma Boko told Aliko Dangote in Gaborone that Botswana is interested in big-ticket investments rather than small ones, and asked him to bring the country's pension funds into whatever he builds there.

Africa's wealthiest man paid a courtesy call on the Botswanan president, who recalled meeting him previously in New York and at the African Union summit in Addis Ababa, and said contact had continued through intermediaries including the Botswana Stock Exchange.

Boko's argument was about execution rather than ideas. He said African governments have the policies and the plans but have not delivered on them, and that implementation is the continent's central failure. He described the Dangote Group as a model of implementation at scale with a record across the continent, pointing to its operations in Ethiopia and Congo-Brazzaville and to the refinery it is planning in Kenya.

He also said governments have not built an environment that supports African investors and entrepreneurs, and that with the continent's population heading toward a quarter of the world's by 2050, it cannot continue importing basic goods including detergent.

The specific opportunity he raised is rail. Boko said construction of the Trans-Kalahari line should begin this year, and that projects of that scale generate demand for cement and other materials, adding that Botswana is ready to move quickly.

He then asked Dangote to approach Botswanan pension funds and other domestic institutions about investing in major projects alongside him, and called the visit the start of what he described as a spectacular journey. Three meetings were scheduled for the day.

Nothing was signed.

Dangote already produces cement across ten African countries through Dangote Cement, in which he holds 87.45%, and the company is the largest producer on the continent. His refinery outside Lagos processes 700,000 barrels of crude a day and has applied to Nigeria's Securities and Exchange Commission for an October listing targeting a $5 billion raise.

Botswana is the second southern African government to court a Nigerian industrialist in recent weeks. Mohammed Dewji, the Tanzanian businessman, met Boko in Gaborone last week alongside the central bank governor and the stock exchange leadership, days after pledging $250 million to Mozambique.

What both visits reflect is a country trying to diversify away from diamonds, which have funded the Botswanan state for five decades and are now selling into a weaker market.