Aliko Dangote GCON (born 10 April 1957) is a Nigerian
business magnate, investor, and owner of the Dangote Group,
which has interests in commodities in Nigeria and other African countries. As
of March 2018, he had an estimated net worth of US$14.1 billion.
Dangote is ranked by Forbes magazine
as the 100th-richest person in the world and the richest in Africa, and
peaked on the list as the 23rd-richest person in the world in 2014. 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.
Early
Life
Aliko Dangote, an ethnic Hausa Muslim from Kano, Kano State,
was born on 10 April 1957 into a wealthy Muslim family. He is the
great-grandson of Alhaji Alhassan Dantata,
the richest African at the time of his death in 1955. Dangote has said:
"I
can remember when I was in primary school, I would go and buy cartons of sweets
[candy] and I would start selling them just to make money. I was so interested
in business, even at that time."
Dangote was educated at the Sheikh Ali Kumasi Madrasa, followed
by Capital High School, Kano. He has a bachelor's degree in business
studies and administration from Al-Azhar University, Cairo.
Business
Career
Nigeria
The Dangote Group was established as a small
trading firm in 1977, the same year Dangote relocated to Lagos to expand the
company. 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 be the largest
industrial group in Nigeria including Dangote Sugar Refinery, Dangote Cement,
and Dangote Flour.
In July 2012, Dangote approached the Nigerian
Ports Authorities 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 that was also approved.
In Nigeria today, Dangote Group with its
dominance in the sugar market and refinery business is the main supplier (70
percent 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
seeds, and ginger to several countries. It also has major investments in real
estate, banking, transport, textiles, oil, and gas. The company employs more
than 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 has said, "Let me tell you this and I
want to really emphasise 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.
Other activities
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$1M). He contributed N50 million (US$0.25M)
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 PDP party have
generated significant concerns despite highly publicized anti-corruption drives
during Obasanjo's second term.
In May 2010, Britain's Daily Mirror reported
that Dangote was interested in buying a 16 per cent stake in Premiership side Arsenal belonging
to Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith. Dangote later denied
these rumours.
In November 2011, Dangote was awarded
Nigeria's second-highest honour, the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger
(GCON) by the former President, Goodluck
Jonathan.
Dangote reportedly added $24.2 billion to his
personal wealth in 2013, according to the Bloomberg Index, making him the
thirtieth-richest person in the world at the time, in addition to being the
richest person in Africa.
In 2014, the Nigerian government said Dangote
had donated 150 million naira (US$750,000) to halt the spread of ebola.
In May 2015, Dangote expressed interest in
purchasing the English football team Arsenal.
He stated that if he was able to make the purchase he would fire the club's
long-standing manager Arsène Wenger.
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