‘Bill Gates presence at Dangote’s daughter’s wedding in Kano good for the economy’
Though, Aliko Dangote, the Kano State-born continental industrial giant, gave out the hand of his daughter, Fatimah, in marriage to the Zamfara State-born Jamil at a very crowd-pulling event in Kano weekend, the attendance of the ceremony by leading US born global billionaire, Mr. Bill Gates has started eliciting reactions from development economists.
According to Dr. Ken Igboanugo, “Gates presence amongst other issues shows that he has confidence on not only Dangote’s investment exploits, but on the economy of Nigeria.
“The attendance may not just be for the wedding. It may go beyond wedding and cross-pollinate either existing business development or new ones between Dangote or other allies that may wish to partner with Gates to invest in one sector or the other.
Buttressing the views of Dr. Igboanugo, another economist, Abdul Mohammed averred that “When influential men in the world especially businessmen attend such ceremonies, their trip is not just for the purpose of what the public is made to believe, but may go beyond that to anchor on one or two new investment deals that may mature in the nearest future”.
“Bill Gates is a known telecoms investor and the Nigerian government is currently encouraging deep pocket international investors to the come and do business in Nigeria. Depending on issues and pictures that may have been presented before the billionaire, more to the visit of Gates to Nigeria over the weekend may start to manifest very soon.
Business Hilights recalls that the season of high profile wedding can be said to have started with the wedding of two governors’ children in Kano three weeks ago and that was followed by the recent wedding of the Vice President’s daughter in Abuja last weekend.
Otherwise, it was a roll call of crème de la crème of eminent personalities, political office holders, captains of industries and diplomats, who stormed the ancient city of Kano, yesterday, for the wedding Fatiha of the daughter of Africa’s richest man and business mogul, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, and son of former Inspector General of Police, Muhammad Dahiru Abubakar.
However, despite the barrage of hard knocks he received for attending the marriage between the son of Oyo State Governor Abiola Ajimobi, and daughter of Kano State Governor Abdullahi Ganduje, also in Kano, a fortnight ago, President Muhammadu Buhari was at weekend’s ceremony, this time as “father” of the bride.
Economic analysts say assuming the nomenclature of the father of the bride speaks volume of the respect and interest the President had for business development moguls and that will inform the volume of waiting foreign investors that the government is always there to protect their investments at all times.
