Chukwuemeka Nwagwu Bsc, Msc has a very good income tax chart – the Dangote Cement vs Nigeria banks. Yes, there is physics in markets, and if you do the needful, all the constructs postulated by earliest thinkers on natural philosophy will work on your balance sheets. Simply, the Dangote Cement (not even Dangote Group) is close to paying as much income tax as all the banks in Nigeria combined. In short, if you remove the WHT (on bank services) which some banks bundle as their own tax, Dangote Cement does better.
Sure, not many will see it that way: conglomerates capture huge value because they fix market frictions which are upstream. That is the message of my book – “The Dangote System: Techniques for Building Conglomerates” – which if you have not read, I will challenge you to read it.
As I always say, Dangote is a good force for Nigeria. But the reason why some do not admire him is that he is alone. In most markets, there would be ten Dangotes. Unfortunately, it is not Aliko Dangote’s fault that other pioneers are not here!
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Can someone pick energy? Can another pick healthcare? There are many other ways: banks are flashy but when it matters, they out-compete and destroy the alpha. Even in America, the leading companies of the age are not banks!
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