Aliko Dangote

Aliko Dangote
MFR, GCON

Dangote at the World Economic Forum in 2011
Born 10 April 1957
Kano, Nigeria
Citizenship Nigerian
Education Business Studies
Alma mater Al-Azhar University, Cairo
Occupation Chairman & CEO, Dangote Group
Years active 1977—present
Net worth US$14.7 billion (2015)[1]
Religion Islam
Children Mariya, Halima, Fatima
Parent(s)
  • Hajia. Mariya Sanusi Dantata (mother)
  • Mohammed Dangote (father)
Relatives Sani Dangote (brother)

Aliko Dangote GCON (born 10 April 1957) is a Nigerian billionaire businessman.[2] who owns the Dangote Group, which has interests in commodities. The company operates in Nigeria and other African countries, including Benin, Cameroon, Ghana, South Africa, Togo and Zambia.[3] As of January 2015, he had an estimated net worth of US$18.6 billion.[2]

Dangote is ranked by Forbes magazine as the 67th richest person in the world and the richest in Africa.[4] He surpassed Saudi-Ethiopian billionaire Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi in 2013 by over $2.6 billion to become the world's richest person of African descent.[5]

Early life

Alhaji Aliko Dangote, a northerner from Kano State, Nigeria, was born on 10 April 1957 into a wealthy Muslim family. Dangote said, "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."[6] He studied business at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt and thereafter returned to Nigeria to borrow from his uncle Sanusi Abdulkadir Dantata, who provided him a loan of ₦200,000 (Naira, NGN) when Aliko was 21 years old, in order to start a business.[7]

Business career

Business in Nigeria

The Dangote Group was established as a small trading firm in 1977. Today, it is a multi-trillion naira conglomerate with many of its operations in Benin, Ghana, Nigeria, and Togo. Dangote has expanded to cover food processing, cement manufacturing, and freight. The Dangote Group also dominates the sugar market in Nigeria and is a major supplier to the country's soft drink companies, breweries, and confectioners. The Dangote Group has moved from being a trading company to being the largest industrial group in Nigeria and includes: Dangote Sugar Refinery, Dangote Cement, and Dangote Flour.

In July 2012, Dangote approached the Nigerian Ports Authority to lease an abandoned piece of land at the Apapa Port, which was approved. He later built facilities for his flour company there. In the 1990s he approached the Central Bank of Nigeria with the idea that it would be cheaper for the bank to allow his transport company to manage their fleet of staff buses, a proposal which was also approved.

In Nigeria today, Dangote Group with its dominance in the sugar market and refinery business is the main supplier (70% of the market) to the country's soft drinks companies, breweries and confectioners. It is the largest refinery in Africa and the third largest in the world, producing 800,000 tonnes of sugar annually. Dangote Group owns salt factories and flour mills and is a major importer of rice, fish, pasta, cement and fertiliser. The company exports cotton, cashew nuts, cocoa, sesame seed and ginger to several countries. It also has major investments in real estate, banking, transport, textiles and oil and gas. The company employs over 11,000 people and is the largest industrial conglomerate in West Africa.

Dangote has diversified into telecommunications, and has started building 14,000 kilometres of fibre optic cables to supply the whole of Nigeria. As a result, Dangote was honoured in January 2009 as the leading provider of employment in the Nigerian construction industry.

He 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."[8]

Other activities

As far as politics are concerned, Dangote played a prominent role in the funding of Olusegun Obasanjo's re-election bid in 2003, to which he gave over N200 million (US$2M). He contributed N50 million (US$0.5M) to the National Mosque under the aegis of "Friends of Obasanjo and Atiku". He contributed N200 million to the Presidential Library. These highly controversial gifts to members of the ruling Party [PDP] have generated significant concerns despite highly publicised anti-corruption drives during Obasanjo's second term.

On 23 May 2010, Britain's Daily Mirror reported that Dangote was interested in buying a 16 percent stake in Premiership side Arsenal belonging to Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith.[9] Dangote later denied these rumours.[10]

On 14 November 2011, Dangote was awarded Nigeria's second highest honour, the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON) by the President, Goodluck Jonathan.[11]

Dangote reportedly added $9.2 billion to his personal wealth in 2013, according to the Bloomberg Index, now making him the 30th richest person in the world, in addition to being the richest person in Africa.[12]

In 2014, the Nigerian government said Dangote had donated 150 million Naira (US$1 million) to halt the spread of ebola.[13][14]

Awards

Dangote was named as the Forbes Africa Person of the Year 2014. The other nominees for the award were South Africa’s Public Protector, Thuli Madonsela, Nigerian author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission, (SEC), Arunma Oteh, and President of the African Development Bank, Donald Kaberuka.[15]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "The World's Billionaires No. 67 Aliko Dangote". Forbes.com. 12 March 2015. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Net worth as of March 2015 per Forbes
  3. ↑ Dangote Group's Cement Operations Spans Six African Countries
  4. ↑ "The World's Billionaires". Forbes. Retrieved 3 March 2014.
  5. ↑ "The Black Billionaires 2013". Forbes. 3 May 2013. Retrieved 3 March 2015.
  6. ↑ "Aliko Dangote - a Lesson for African Entrepreneurs". Vanguard. 22 March 2014. Retrieved 11 July 2014.
  7. ↑ http://leadership.ng/news/311013/global-power-list-dangote-64th-most-powerful-person[]
  8. ↑ "Who Is A Wealthy Man? The Aliko Dangote Story". Nigerian Observer. 23 December 2014. Retrieved 2 April 2015.
  9. ↑ Aliko Dangote Poised To Buy Stake In English Soccer Club
  10. ↑ "Nigerian plays down Arsenal link". BBC News. 24 May 2010.
  11. ↑ Photos from the ceremony in which Dangote received the Member of the Order of the Federal Republic on the 14th of November 2011
  12. ↑ "Aliko Dangote Racks in $9.2 bn in 2013". Bellanaija. 3 January 2014.
  13. ↑ http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFKBN0GE0X320140814
  14. ↑ http://www.businessdailyafrica.com/Corporate-News/Richest-man-in-Africa-gives-KShs13bn-to-stop-Ebola/-/539550/2418886/-/s8rbsmz/-/index.html
  15. ↑ Reed, Megan. "Nigerian Businessman Aliko Dangote Named Forbes Africa Person of the Year 2014". atlantablackstar.com. Retrieved 28 December 2014.

Further reading

External links