Talk:Dantata
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Alhassan Dantata was succesful businessman from what is now present day Nigeria. He was born into an Hausa trading family in the town of Bebeji. He was originally a Kola trader(1903-1906?) transporting goods from Kano through Ibadan-Lagos and finally to Accra, Ghana. He was one of the pioneering merchants using this route was fairly succesful trading kola from Bebeji. Alhaji Dantata later dabbled into trading western clothes, beads and necklaces. But soon later he would make effective changes to consolidate his business. He chose a kano residency around the time of Abbas, Emir of Kano(1903-1919). This gave him a wider exposure to the political charlatans of the era. And later in 1918, Alhaji Alhassan Dantata a devout muslim soon found a much bigger prize, he was approached by the Niger company(U.A.C) to become an agent for them in the groundnut produce business. He chose to work with the company for different reasons, one was the succesful precedent set by cocoa produce merchants in the gold coast. Since then he never looked back. He was also a board member of the Nigerian Ralway Corporation. Alhaji Dantata died in 1955 and was survived by 18 children, including Alhaji Aminu Dantata (Express Petroleum) and Alhassan Sanusi Dantata (Dantata and Sawoe). At the time of his death he could arguably be described as the richest West African in the British colonies.
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