Nigerian businessman, Dangote says he will buy club in four years

Nigerian businessman Aliko Dangote says it will take me three or four years to buy Premier League giants, Arsenal.

Dangote who is the richest man in Africa has several times declared his interest in buying Premier League side, Arsenal.

In a recent interview, the 59-year-old who is worth $10.9 billion according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index says he wants his business prospects to improve before making a move to buy the club.

“Maybe three to four years. The issue is that we have more challenging headwinds. I need to get those out the way first and start having tailwinds. Then I’ll focus on this,” Dangote told Bloomberg Television in New York on Wednesday, September 21.It’s not about buying Arsenal and just continuing with business as usual,” Dangote added.

“It’s about buying Arsenal and turning it around. I’ve run a very successful business and I think I can also run a very successful team. Right now, with what we’re facing, over $ 20 billion of projects, I cannot do both.”

Arsenal’s ownership is distributed among shareholder with American billionaire businessman Stan Kroenke with 67%.

Dangote in 2015 revealed that he proposed to buy the club in 2010 before falling out with the officials.

“I still hope, one day at the right price, that I’ll buy the team.  I might buy it, not at a ridiculous price but a price that the owners won’t want to resist. I know my strategy,” he told Bloomberg in 2015.

Dangote who is an Arsenal fan also criticised the manager, Arsene Wenger and advised the Frenchman to 'change his style a bit'.

His company, the Dangote Group was established as a small trading firm in 1977  but is today a multi-trillion Naira conglomerate with many of its operations in Benin, Ghana, Nigeria, and Togo.

The Dangote Group has expanded to production of  food, cement, sugar etc.