Aliko Dangote is the CEO & Chairman of Dangote Group; he is a business man and billionaire from Nigeria. He is a celebrity in his own right because such is the enormousness of his wealth, fame, and influence that he has become a household name in his home country Nigeria. Every citizen knows him and wishes to be him. He is ranked the richest man in Africa and the 67th richest person in the world by Forbes Magazine In 2014 he was even ranked the 23rd richest person in the world after he exceeded Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi; a Saudi-Ethiopian billionaire with up to $2.6 billion and consequentially became the richest African alive. His company; Dangote Group runs in not just Nigeria but in other African countries of which includes; Benin, Ethiopia, Senegal, Cameroon, Ghana, South Africa, Togo, Tanzania, and Zambia.
BACKGROUND
Dangote was born into a wealthy and well-known Muslim Nigerian family. His great grandfather Alhaji Alhassan Dantata was the richest African alive before he died in 1955. Dangote was born on the 10th of April 1957 to Mohammed Dangote and Hajia Mariya Sanusi Dantata who were very wealthy in their own right.
“I can remember when I was in primary school, I would go and buy cartons of sweets [sugar boxes] and I would start selling them just to make money. I was so interested in business, even at that time”-Dangote
Dangote has always been inclined to business so much that as early as when he was still in Primary school he was already going into petty trading of some sort. He got his education from Al-Azhar University. He has one daughter- Halima Dangote.
RISE TO FAME AND WEALTH: Biography Of Aliko Dangote
His company- Dangote Group first started out in 1977 as an undersized trading firm and then at some point he moved to Lagos to expand the company. The company is at present a conglomerate worth multi-trillions of naira with branches in countries like Benin, Ghana, Nigeria, and Togo. His company stretched out to accommodate food processing, cement manufacturing, and freight. There is very little consumable products that the company does not currently produce. It has taken over the sugar market in Nigeria and is currently a major supplier to soft drink companies, breweries, and confectioners across the country. The group has stretched out from just trading to becoming the largest industrial group in Nigeria including Dangote Sugar Refinery, Dangote Cement, and Dangote Flour. Dangote rented an abandoned piece of land at Apapa Port from the Nigerian Ports Authorities and proceeded to build facilities for his flour company there. He also went on to approach the Central Bank of Nigeria with a proposal for them to give him the contract of managing their fleet of staff buses; they approved his proposal. Today the Dangote group with its presence in the sugar market is the largest refinery in Africa and the third largest in the world. It produces up to 800,000 tonnes of sugar annually. Dangote Group also owns salt factories and flour mills and is a major importer of rice, fish, pasta, cement, and fertilizer. The company also exports cotton, cashew nuts, cocoa, sesame seed and ginger to several countries and has major investments in real estate, banking, transport, textiles and oil, and gas. The company has over 11,000 people and occupies the position of the largest manufacturing conglomerate in West Africa.
Dangote has also stretched into telecommunications and embarked on a project of building 14,000 kilometers of fiber optic cables to supply the whole of Nigeria.
Subsequently, Dangote was decorated in January 2009 as the foremost provider of employment in the Nigerian manufacture industry.
Dangote is also known to be very patriotic and a prominent patron of his country of origin Nigeria. He is quoted to have said;
“Let me tell you this and I want to really emphasize it…nothing is going to help Nigeria like Nigerians bringing back their money. If you give me $5 billion today, I will invest everything here in Nigeria. Let us put our heads together and work”
EXTRA-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES
- In 2003 Dangote role is the re-election of Olusegun Obasanjo as President of Nigeria. He funded the re-election with over N200 million, he also contributed N50 million to the National Mosque under auspices of “Friends of Obasanjo and Atiku”. He donated N200 million to the Presidential Library and generally was very financially supportive of the ruling party which at that time was the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
- In 2010 Dangote reportedly declared an interest in buying a 16 percent stake in Premiership side Arsenal belonging to Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith. Nevertheless, Dangote later denied this claim.
- Dangote was awarded Nigeria’s second highest honour, the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON) by the President, Goodluck Jonathan in 2014.
- Dangote reportedly donated 150 million Naira to help combat the spread of the Ebola virus in 2014.
- Dangote declared interest in purchasing the English football team Arsenal and also stated that if he successfully did, he would go on to fire the club’s long-standing manager Arsene Wenger.
Aliko Dangote Net Worth | Net Worth of Aliko Dangote
Dangote’s Net worth as rated by Forbes in 2017 is 12.2 billion USD.
