Africa's richest man sat barefoot on his new yacht in a lagoon here after another night of about three hours sleep.
在又一个只睡三小时左右的夜晚之后，非洲首富阿里科・丹格特(Aliko Dangote)赤脚坐在他漂浮于尼日利亚拉各斯一片泻湖中的新游艇上。
The day was filled with meetings about his cement company and preparations for a polio-fighting trip with fellow billionaire Bill Gates. His BlackBerry buzzed every few minutes with messages from the president of Benin, and a former U.S. ambassador wanted some face time.
那一天特别忙碌，要跟人会面谈他的水泥公司，还要为了跟另一位亿万富翁比尔・盖茨(Bill Gates)一同踏上抗击小儿麻 症之旅做准备。他的黑莓手机每隔几分钟就会因为贝宁总统发来的信息而响起，一位前美国大使也想跟他见面。
'You don't see any sign of stress on me,' Aliko Dangote said with a tight smile. The 56-year-old businessman said he was getting an energy boost from a weeklong fast that limits him to six glasses of watermelon juice a day.
56岁的丹格特(Aliko Dangote)带着一丝僵硬的微笑说：“你在我身上看不到任何压力的迹象。”他说他正在进行为期一周的禁食，一天只喝六杯西瓜汁，所以感到充满了活力。
For two decades, Mr. Dangote (pronounced DAHN-go-tay) has turned his relentlessness, connections and entrepreneurial bets on the rise of Africa into a fortune estimated at about $22 billion.
20年来，丹格特利用他的坚韧精神、人际关系，通过创业押注非洲崛起，积累了一笔据估计达220亿美元左右的财富。
Most of it comes from his controlling stake in a conglomerate of cement, sugar, salt and noodle factories sprawled across 16 countries. Profits in three publicly traded companies he controls hit $1 billion in the first nine months of 2013, up 43% from a year earlier.
大部分财富来自他在一家多元化企业集团持有的控股股权，该集团由遍布16个国家的水泥、糖、盐、面条工厂组成。他控股的三家上市公司在2013年头九个月实现利润10亿美元，较上年同期增长43%。
Mr. Dangote now has a plan to quintuple his wealth -- and become one of the five richest people in the world. He will spend $9 billion to build the largest privately owned refinery in Nigeria, which produces more oil than any other African country but must import most of the motor fuel and diesel it uses because existing refineries are dilapidated and inefficient.
丹格特现在有一个将其财富扩大到目前的五倍、跻身世界五大首富之列的计划。他将花90亿美元建成尼日利亚最大的私有炼油厂。尼日利亚的石油产量比其他任何非洲国家都高，但它使用的大部分发动机燃料和柴油都必须进口，因为现有炼油厂年久失修，效率低下。
Within about two years, the new refinery in a stretch of swampy shoreline outside Lagos could start piping in crude from roughly 7 miles offshore, bypassing a traffic jam of tankers often stuck for weeks. Competing against four government-managed refineries that run at barely 20% of their capacity, Mr. Dangote would double the country's maximum refinery output.
新炼油厂将位于拉各斯城外一条泥泞的海岸线上。大约两年之内，它可能就会开始从入海大约七英里的地方泵入原油，绕过常常滞留数星期的油轮造成的拥堵。与丹格特竞争的是四家产能利用率仅20%的国营炼油厂。新炼油厂投产后，尼日利亚的最大炼油产量将会翻上一番。
The refinery project is a bet that Africa's economy will keep growing much faster than the rest of the world, especially as a wave of consumerism sweeps the continent.
这个炼油厂项目是在下注非洲经济的增长速度将继续远远快于世界其他地区，特别是在消费主义浪潮席卷这个大洲的时候。
New airlines are taking off so quickly that some jet-fuel sellers, hurt by a shortage, have been caught trying to fill airplane tanks with kerosene instead. Car imports through Nigeria's main port have risen to about 300 cars a day.
由于新航空公司如雨后春笋般出现，一些饱受短缺之苦的航空燃料公司曾试图往飞机燃料罐里装煤油，结果被抓了现行。经由尼日利亚主要港口进口的汽车数量已经上升到一天300辆左右。
As a result, Africa now is the world's fastest-growing oil user, and the International Energy Agency expects oil consumption in Africa to surge about 30% to 4.5 million barrels a day by 2018. The jump represents 15% of the world's projected rise in oil demand.
因此非洲已经成为世界石油用量增长最快的地方，国际能源署(International Energy Agency)预计非洲石油用量到2018年将猛增三成左右至每日450万桶。这个增量占世界石油需求预期增量的15%。
Mr. Dangote and his supporters, including Nigeria's president, see more than money in the new refinery. To them, it also defies centuries of Africa exporting its most precious resources -- including gold, diamonds and humans -- rather than putting them to work at home.
在这座新炼油厂身上，丹格特以及包括尼日利亚总统在内的支持者看到的不只是金钱。对他们来讲，它还颠覆了非洲几百年来一直出口黄金、 石和人口等最珍贵资源，而不是让这些资源在境内发挥作用的历史。
Nigeria's government has collected about $1.3 trillion in oil revenue since 1980, according to the Economist Intelligence Unit. Yet about 60% of the country's 170 million people live on less than $1 a day, according to the government. It says as much as 400,000 barrels of oil per day -- or one-sixth of total output -- are pilfered from pipelines by bandits. Most of the stolen crude is loaded onto barges at night and shipped abroad.
据经济学人智库(Economist Intelligence Unit)数据，从1980年以来，尼日利亚政府获得石油收入约1.3万亿美元。但尼日利亚政府数据显示，该国1.7亿人口当中还有六成人口每天生活费不到一美元。政府表示，匪徒从石油管道盗走石油，多的时候达40万桶一天，相当于总产量的六分之一。大部分被盗原油都在夜间装上货船，发往国外。
The refinery planned by Mr. Dangote will 'change the economic and industrial landscape of Nigeria,' said Doyin Okupe, senior special assistant to Nigeria President Goodluck Jonathan. The president thanked the billionaire and his bankers by inviting them to Mr. Jonathan's villa on a day usually reserved for government planning sessions.
尼日利亚总统古德勒克・乔纳森(Goodluck Jonathan)的高级特别助理杜因・奥库普(Doyin Okupe)说，丹格特拟建的炼油厂将“改变尼日利亚的经济和工业版图”。在一个通常用来开政府规划会议的日子，乔纳森邀请丹格特和他的银行家合作伙伴们到自己的别墅，以示感谢。
The project faces daunting challenges. Competition will be fierce from U.S., Asian and European companies that also want to satisfy Africa's thirst for gasoline and other fuel products. Some energy firms are expanding operations in Africa, and American refineries are gaining an edge around the world as the U.S. shale-oil boom lowers their production costs.
炼油厂项目面临着巨大的挑战。美国、亚洲和欧洲的一些企业也想满足非洲对汽油和其他燃料的渴求，它们将带来激烈的竞争。一些能源企业正在拓展非洲业务，而随着美国页岩油浪潮降低了生产成本，美国的炼油企业在世界范围内更是独具优势。
Nigeria also subsidizes imported oil, keeping prices at the gas pump about one-third lower than they are in the U.S.
尼日利亚还补贴进口石油，将加油站的油价保持在比美国低大约三分之一的水平。
'I don't know how he's going to do it, but I do know it's going to be very, very tough,' said Bismarck Rewane, managing director of Financial Derivatives Co., a research firm in Lagos. He has known Mr. Dangote since they lived near each other in the 1980s and attended middle-of-the-night house parties together.
拉各斯研究公司Financial Derivatives Co.董事总经理俾斯麦・雷瓦内(Bismarck Rewane)说：“我不知道他将怎样去做，但我知道做起来将非常非常艰难。”雷瓦内是在20世纪80年代和丹格特相邻而居、一起参加午夜别墅聚会的时候开始认识他的。
Despite all his connections, Mr. Dangote hasn't won government approval for a license needed to build the refinery. That is not unusual. From 2000 to 2010, more than 100 refinery construction projects were announced in Africa. Only one was built, according to consulting firm Citac Africa Ltd. Others often fell victim to political interference or high borrowing costs.
虽然拥有深厚的人脉，丹格特申请修建炼油厂所需的执照还没有得到政府的批准。此事并不鲜见。据咨询公司Citac Africa Ltd.说，从2000年到2010年，非洲宣布将要建设的炼油厂项目超过100个，但建成的只有一个。其他项目常常因为政治干预或高昂的借款成本而流产。
'We will get it,' Mr. Dangote said about the license. The ministry reviewing the license application declined to comment. Nigeria's next presidential election is scheduled for 2015.
丹格特说：“我们会拿到（执照）的。”评估执照申请的部门拒绝置评。尼日利亚下次总统大选按计划将于2015年举行。
In an interview on his yacht, named Mariya after his mother, the billionaire said his refinery will have no trouble competing because it will avoid Nigeria's costly and congested ports. He hasn't said if it will sell gasoline to retailers for less than they pay now.
丹格特在他以母亲名字命名为“玛丽亚”(Mariya)的游艇上接受采访，表示他的炼油厂将不惧竞争，因为它将避开尼日利亚成本高昂、船满为患的港口。他没有透露卖给零售商的汽油价格会不会低于现在的水平。
He also expects Nigeria to eventually abolish foreign-oil subsidies, which cost the government $6.5 billion last year.
他还预计，尼日利亚终将放弃对外来石油的补贴。2012年政府在这方面的补贴款为65亿美元。
In the past decade, Africa's economy has grown by an average of 5.6% a year, compared with the world-wide growth rate of 3.6% per year, according to the International Monetary Fund. The surge has helped turn some of the richest businessmen in Africa into tycoons.
国际货币基金组织(International Monetary Fund)数据显示，在过去10年，非洲经济平均每年增长5.6%，相比之下世界经济年增速为3.6%。这种高速增长帮助一部分非洲最富有的生意人变成了富豪。
Africa now has 27 billionaires, up from 16 in 2012 and just two a decade ago, according to Forbes magazine. Those two were white South Africans.
据《福布斯》杂志(Forbes)统计，2013年非洲拥有10亿美元以上财富的人有27位，2012年有16位，10年前只有两位，而且那两位都是南非白人。
Mr. Dangote was born into wealth. Near the dawn of British colonialism in the early 1900s, his great-grandfather, Alhassan Dantata, cornered the peanut market in drought-prone northern Nigeria. While other Nigerians chafed at colonial rule, Mr. Dantata exported tons of peanuts to feed Europe's growing appetite.
丹格特生于富裕家庭。20世纪初期英国殖民统治开始之前不久，他的外曾祖父阿尔哈桑・丹塔塔(Alhassan Dantata)垄断了旱灾频发的尼日利亚北部的花生市场。在其他尼日利亚人为殖民统治感到愤怒的时候，丹塔塔将一吨吨的花生出口到欧洲，满足那里越来越大的胃口。
During the oil boom of the 1970s, an uncle of Mr. Dangote gave him a government-issued license to import cement. But few Nigerians had ever heard of him. Mr. Dangote spent much of his time and earnings in Brazil, usually enjoying the Carnival festival before Lent. In the 1990s, a friend talked him into flying to Atlanta, where he bought a house and then swung through every other month for jaunts at nightclubs.
在70年代石油行情好的时候，丹格特的一个舅舅送给他一张政府发放的水泥进口执照。但那时候尼日利亚没几个人听说过他。丹格特把很大一部分时间和收入都花在了巴西，常常在四旬斋前享受当地的狂欢节。90年代，他在一位友人的劝说下飞到美国亚特兰大，他在那里买下了一栋房子，然后每隔一个月就会去那里的夜总会闲逛。
He felt comfortable amid Atlanta's historically black colleges and restaurants, far away from a succession of military coups and botched elections in Nigeria. Startled by a snake in his basement one day, Mr. Dangote sold the house and bought a larger one.
他在亚特兰大历来以黑人为主的大学和餐馆如鱼得水，远离了尼日利亚一连串的军事政变和流产选举。有一天丹格特被地下室的一条蛇吓到，于是他卖掉了房子，买了一栋更大的。
But he started to feel the tug of his homeland, the most populous country in Africa. On trips to Brazil for Carnival, he saw signs of the economic progress the country had made: Desperate hustlers, touts and money changers didn't swarm him at the airport any more. And cement factories were popping up in the mountains.
但他开始感受到人口居非洲之最的祖国的吸引力。在前往巴西参加狂欢节的途中，他看到尼日利亚取得经济进步的迹象：机场不再有骗子、票贩子和货币兑换商不顾一切地朝他涌来。水泥厂也在山区纷纷涌现。
That gave him an idea to do something big, he said. He flew back to Nigeria, contributed to the upstart People's Democratic Party and made a promise after its presidential candidate won election in 1999. Mr. Dangote vowed to build one of the world's largest cement plants if the government restricted the flow of cement through the country's ports.
他说，这使他萌生了做大事的想法。1999年，丹格特飞回尼日利亚，向新兴的人民民主党(People's Democratic Party)捐款，并在该党总统候选人赢得选举之后许下了一个诺言。他声言，如果政府限制水泥进口，他将建成世界上最大的水泥厂之一。
The businessman got what he wanted. The limits on imports of cement -- the most common building material in Africa -- lifted prices to twice the world-wide average. His business empire mushroomed. Dangote Group now makes a two-thirds markup on every bag of cement it sells.
丹格特如愿以偿。水泥是非洲最常用的建筑材料，进口限制使其价格上涨到世界平均水平的两倍。他的商业帝国迅速壮大。现在丹格特集团(Dangote Group)每卖一袋水泥，就要赚取三分之二的利润。
In return, Mr. Dangote spent $1 billion on the cement factory and an adjoining, 1.7 mile-long airstrip, borrowing some of the money at an interest rate of 42%. They opened in 2008, and he vaulted onto the billionaires' list for the first time.
作为回报，丹格特花10亿美元建成了这家大型水泥厂和与其毗邻的一条1.7英里长的飞机跑道，其中部分资金以42%的利率借得。水泥厂和跑道在2008年开业，他首次跻身亿万富豪的行列。
Dangote Group now employs about 25,000 people in Nigeria, is building cement factories in 14 countries in Africa and is buying mining licenses from Kenya to Zambia.
目前丹格特集团在尼日利亚的员工数量在2.5万人左右，正在非洲14个国家修建水泥厂，并从肯尼亚、赞比亚等国家购买采矿执照。
A pop song in Nigeria called 'Aliko Dangote Special' includes the line 'Cover of Forbes, he no be joke.' The motivational book 'Dangote's Ten Commandments on Money' cites the billionaire's advice 'to make the best of your time because any time lost cannot be regained.' No. 8: 'Believe in Nigeria.'
尼日利亚有一首流行歌曲名叫“阿里科・丹格特不一般”(Aliko Dangote Special)，里面有一句歌词是“他上了福布斯封面，真的不开玩笑”。励志书《丹格特10条金钱戒律》(Dangote's Ten Commandments on Money)引用了这位富豪的这样一条建议：“最大化地利用自己的时间，因为浪费掉的时间是无法挽回的。”第八条戒律是：“相信尼日利亚。”
'It's something he said to me years ago: 'Only Africans will build Africa,'' said Kola Karim, chief executive of oil-exploration company Shoreline Natural Resources Ltd. Mr. Karim sells most of the oil from Shoreline's fields in the Niger River delta to India but would rather do business with Mr. Dangote.
石油勘探公司Shoreline Natural Resources Ltd.首席执行长科拉・卡里姆(Kola Karim)说：“他在多年前跟我说：‘只有非洲人才会建设非洲。’”Shoreline公司尼日尔河三角洲油田产出的石油大都卖到印度，但卡里姆更愿意跟丹格特做生意。
The two men, who are friends, recently talked over the details on a dock next to the billionaire's yacht but haven't announced an agreement. 'This is where my future lies,' Mr. Karim said. 'The market is in Africa.'
两人是朋友，他们最近在丹格特游艇旁边的码头上讨论了细节问题，但还没有公开达成协议。卡里姆说：“这里是我的未来所在，市场就在非洲。”
Mr. Dangote will soon borrow $1.5 billion to lease about 740,000 acres, an area 50 times bigger than Manhattan. He wants to grow sugar and rice for Dangote Group's processing plants.
丹格特将在不久之后借入15亿美元租赁大约74万英亩（约合30万公顷）的土地，相当于纽约曼哈顿面积的50倍。他想为丹格特集团的加工厂种植蔗糖和稻米。
The area in northeastern Nigeria is swarming with fighters from Islamic insurgency Boko Haram, but the fields will put so many people to work that the insurgents will 'leave us alone,' Mr. Dangote predicted. Once the farm is thriving, 'Boko Haram will not have guys to recruit.'
该地区位于尼日利亚东北部，到处都是伊斯兰反抗组织“博科 地”(Boko Haram)的士兵。但丹格特预计，这些田地将使很多人找到工作，反抗组织将“不再管我们”。一旦农场发展起来，“博科 地就没有人员可以招募了”。
The industrialist nudged Nigerian bankers for more than a year about his refinery plans. Then he started telling them how much they should lend -- and at what interest rate.
这位实业家向尼日利亚的银行界推销其炼油厂计划，讲了一年多的时间。接着他开始讲他们应该贷给他多少钱，利率应该是多少。
'When he wants something, he gets it,' said Edmund Boyo, a partner at law firm Clifford Chance LLP who worked on the deal.
经手这桩交易的律师事务所Clifford Chance LLP合伙人埃德蒙・博约(Edmund Boyo)说：“他想要什么就有什么。”
In September, Dangote Group announced a $3.3 billion syndicated loan from banks led by Standard Chartered of the U.K. and Nigeria's Guaranty Trust Bank PLC. Terms of the $3.3 billion loan weren't disclosed, though he said it includes a penalty if he repays the banks too quickly.
2013年9月，丹格特集团宣布获得一笔33亿美元的银团贷款，牵头行是英国的渣打银行(Standard Chartered)和尼日利亚的Guaranty Trust Bank PLC.。贷款的条款没有披露，但丹格特说，根据其中一个条款，如果他还款过快，就要交一笔罚金。
Nowadays, banks sometimes charge him less than 6% interest, he added, a lower interest rate than Nigeria's government gets on its loans.
他还说，目前银行向他收取的利率有时候不到6%，低于尼日利亚政府的借款利率。
Yvonne Ike, chief execuitve of investment bank Renaissance Capital's operations in western Africa, said she has seen bankers' 'eyes watering when they thought about how much they had lent' to Mr. Dangote at rock-bottom interest rates compared with other companies. Still, the bankers 'couldn't stand not to be a part of the biggest debt deal in Africa,' she said.
投资银行Renaissance Capital西非区首席执行长伊冯娜・艾克(Yvonne Ike)说，她曾看到银行家在想到他们以相比其他公司低得不能再低的利率给丹格特借了多少钱时“满含泪水”。但她说，这些银行家“不敢不参与非洲最大规模的债务交易”。
Mr. Dangote now is trying to line up oil to feed his refinery. Chevron Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell PLC are selling oil fields along Nigeria's coast after long battles with kidnappers and pipeline-bombing oil thieves.
丹格特目前正在为他的炼油厂筹备石油货源。雪佛龙公司(Chevron Corp.)和荷兰皇家壳牌公司(Royal Dutch Shell PLC)在与绑架者、炸油管的偷油贼较量了很长一段时间之后，现在都在出售尼日利亚沿海的油田。
The billionaire wants to buy the two companies' tracts of oil-rich swamp. To protect the oil from bandits, he will bury pipelines to and from the refinery. Chevron and Shell declined to comment.
丹格特想从这两家公司手中买下富含石油的成片沼泽地。为了避免石油被匪徒盗窃，他将把进出管道一直埋到炼油厂。雪佛龙和壳牌拒绝置评。
The billionaire hasn't announced any deals to sell the gasoline, plastic and other fuel products that will be made by his refinery.
丹格特尚未公布任何销售炼油厂所产汽油、塑料和其他燃料产品的交易。
He likely will have to lure away customers from state-owned oil company Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. It controls the four rundown refineries that dominate Nigeria's oil industry. Government leaders have denounced the company as opaque and unscrupulous.
他可能将需要从国有石油公司尼日利亚国家石油公司(Nigerian National Petroleum Corp.)那里挖客户。这家公司控制着四家在尼日利亚石油行业唱主角的老旧炼油厂。政府领导人曾指责它不透明、不守规矩。
'It's a waste pipe of corruption,' said Ken Saro-Wiwa Jr., a spokesman for Mr. Jonathan, Nigeria's president. An NNPC spokeswoman couldn't be reached for comment.
尼日利亚总统乔纳森的发言人小肯・萨罗-威瓦(Ken Saro-Wiwa Jr.)说：“它是一条充满了腐败的废弃管道。”本报未能联系到尼日利亚国家石油公司的发言人置评。
Mr. Dangote hasn't had a vacation since he took 18 children, grandchildren, nephews and nieces to Walt Disney World in Florida last year. That was his first vacation in 17 years, and he has no plans for another one. The refinery is keeping him too busy.
丹格特在2012年带着儿女、孙子孙女、侄儿侄女18人去佛罗里达迪士尼世界(Walt Disney World)游玩之后就没有度过假。那是他17年来的第一次度假，现在也没有再次度假的计划。炼油厂的事让他忙不过来。
'If there is anything higher than the national honor that the president gave me two years ago, which I do appreciate very much, then he obviously needs to give me another national honor for building a refinery that we never, ever dreamt about,' he said.
他说：“总统在两年前给了我国家荣誉，我非常感激；如果说有什么东西高于它的话，那么他显然需要再给我一次国家荣誉，表彰我建成一座我们做梦都不曾想过的炼油厂。”
The billionaire's private jet was landing in Lagos at 1 a.m. last month when his pilot got a call from air-traffic controllers. Mr. Gates, the Microsoft Corp. co-founder and one of the world's richest men, had just spent two days with Mr. Dangote but was stranded 400 miles away by a broken-down plane.
2013年11月一天的凌晨一点钟，丹格特的私人飞机正要在拉各斯降落，飞行员便接到空中交通管理员打来的电话。微软集团(Microsoft Corp.)联合创始人、世界最富裕人士之一盖茨刚刚和丹格特一起呆了两天，但因为飞机故障，被困在了400英里以外的一个地方。
Mr. Dangote told his pilot to turn around, pick up Mr. Gates and fly back to Lagos. Mr. Dangote got home at 4 a.m. and was at his desk by 7:30.
丹格特让飞行员返航，接上了盖茨，又飞回拉各斯。丹格特在凌晨四点钟到家，7点30分的时候他已经坐在了办公桌前。