Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote has reiterated plans for Dangote Group to invest $7.5 billion in its expansion strategy over the next four years.

The Nigerian industrialist made the statement concerning his conglomerate on Thursday on the side lines of the World Economic Forum in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

According to Dangote, the company is going into “something big”.  He also hinted that the company would be investing in “…mining, petrochemicals, cement and infrastructure”

“We need to spend $7.5 billion in the next four years. So, definitely, we need a lot of concentration”, Dangote quipped.

Earlier this week, news broke of an impending acquisition of his food company, Dangote Flour Mills by South African consumer foods gaint Tiger Brands.  However, the entrepreneur shed light on the situation, sighting a change in investment focus as one of the reasons he was looking for partners for his flour business.

“We are actually trying to have a partnership between us and Tiger Brands,” he said. “We believe they are much better than us in terms of the retail business.”

According to Dangote, the Tiger deal is not about offloading assets.

“We are not selling. If it was to raise money, we would have … sold the whole business to them. But no. What we are trying to do is actually to have them so that we can now enjoy the downstream of the business,” he said.

Dangote is Africa richest man. His business interests spans across Africa and several sectors including cement, oil and gas, flour, sugar, textile etc.

Earlier this year, Dangote revealed plans to list his $11 billion cement company on the London stock exchange by the third quarter of 2013. Dangote cement is also the largest listed company on the Nigerian stock exchange and in West Africa.