Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest person, has lauded President Bola Tinubu for his visionary leadership and economic moves in Lagos.

“Your Excellency, I would like to express my deep appreciation to you for your visionary leadership and farsightedness on the Bar Beach Land Reclamation project in Victoria Island, Lagos State,” Mr Dangote said in an advertorial published on Wednesday.

“Through this project, began a process which has transformed a coastline that was once prone to incessant floods to an emerging new district, with a defining skyline and a receptacle for direct investment and socioeconomic growth ever since its conception in 2008,” said the statement.

Mr Dangote praised Mr Tinubu as the “Asiwaju of Africa”, saying “your foresightedness is even more visible in view of the tragic incident in Kerr County, Texas, USA where over 100 lives have sadly been lost to flash flooding”.

The Dangote Group founder, however, hailed the Eko Atlantic City project “spawned” by Mr Tinubu, a modern city spanning 1,000 hectares, “protected by an 8.5-kilometre-long sea wall, protecting Victoria Island from coastal erosion and giving birth to a dwelling constructed from new land created through sand dredging from the Atlantic Ocean”.

As Mr Dangote commiserated with “the families of those who died in the Texas flooding incident”, he thanked Mr Tinubu for his “compassionate and visionary leadership, which has provided huge consistent support for our businesses and enabled a more prosperous nation for the collective good”.

He added, “In honour of your vision, the Aliko Dangote Foundation will soon be announcing plans of contributing to a Climate Fund that will target those vulnerable parts of our country which are susceptible to this natural disaster.”

The billionaire business mogul lauded the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway as a step to improve the country’s infrastructure.

“Mr President you added another feat by kickstarting the Lagos-Calabar coastal highway and the Sokoto-Badagry superhighway- significantly enriching the country’s stock of infrastructure while improving the national road network linking Nigeria’s six geo-political zones.

“The latter of the two, being a resurrection of a 48-year-old project and both being handled by a fint rate construction and civil engineering firm in Hitech Construction Company Limited.

“Indeed, Your Excellency, your inspired move recalls a similar methodology in a land reclamation process in Zeeland, Netherlands, where submerged land was transformed into usable, dry land, primarily for agriculture and settlement,” Mr Dangote said.