Aliko Dangote

Aliko Dangote
Aliko Dangote in 2011
Born	(1957-04-10) 10 April 1957 Kano, Nigeria
Nationality	Nigerian
Citizenship	Nigeria
Education	Business Studies, Al-Azhar University, Cairo
Occupation(s)	Chairman & CEO, Dangote Group
Years active	1977—present
Title	Alhaji
Parent(s)	Mariya Sanusi Dantata (f), Mohammed Dangote (m)
Website	Homepage

Alhaji Aliko Dangote, MFR, GCON (born 10 April 1957, Kano, Nigeria) is a Nigerian self-made business magnate, with an estimated net worth of $11.2 billion USD as of March 2012. Based in Nigeria, he is the owner of the Dangote Group, which has interests in commodities with operations in his homeland and several other countries in Africa, including Benin, Cameroon, Ghana, South Africa and Zambia.

Dangote is ranked by Forbes Magazine as the 76th richest person in the world.

Early life

Aliko Dangote was born in the northern Nigerian state of Kano on April 10, 1957 into a wealthy Hausa-Muslim family. His mother Mariya Sanusi Dantata was the granddaughter of legendary Hausa businessman Alhassan Dantata, and his father Mohammed Dangote was Dantata's business associate.

Dangote had an early interest in business: "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." he said during an interview. He attended the Al Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt where he studied business,and later returned back to Nigeria to work with his uncle Sanusi Abdulkadir Dantata who eventually gave him a business loan of $500,000 when he was just 21 years old.

Business career

The Dangote Group, originally a small trading firm founded in 1977, is now a multi-trillion naira conglomerate with operations in Benin, Ghana, Nigeria, and Togo. Dangote's businesses include food processing, cement manufacturing, and freight. The Dangote Group dominates the sugar market in Nigeria: it is the major sugar supplier to the country's soft drink companies, breweries, and confectioners. Dangote Group has moved from being a trading company to Nigeria's largest industrial group including: Dangote Sugar Refinery,, Dangote Cement, and Dangote Flour amongst others.

Aliko Dangote has a knack for seeing opportunity that others can't see. He approached the Nigerian Ports Authority with the idea of leasing an abandoned piece of land at the Apapa Port, where he subsequently built facilities for his flour company. When other flour companies protested, the chairman of the NPA, Chief Olabode George stated that Dangote was the one who came up with the idea. Similarly, in the 1990s when 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.

Today Dangote Group dominates the sugar market in Nigeria and Dangote Sugar Refinery 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 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. Dangote Group also has major investments in real estate, banking, transport, textiles and oil and gas. It employs over 18,000 people and is the largest industrial conglomerate in West Africa.

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

"[Nigerians] can be even bigger than me, " he said "you just have to believe that yes, there is a future in this country of ours and I can tell you right now, I don't believe we have even started doing anything in Nigeria because the opportunities are so enormous. I don't even know where to start.

"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."

Dangote played a prominent role in the funding of Obasanjo’s re-election campaign in 2003, to which he contributed over N200 million (US$2M). He gave N50 million (US$0.5M) to the National Mosque under the aegis of "Friends of Obasanjo and Atiku", and contributed N200 million to the Presidential Library. These controversial gifts to members of the ruling People's Democratic Party have contributed to concerns over continued graft despite highly-publicized 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. Dangote later denied these rumours.

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

See also

• Dangote Group
• Economy of Nigeria

References

• Barau, A.S. (2007) The Great Attractions of Kano. Research and Documentation Directorate, Government House Kano

External links

• Nigerian wealth fails to trickle down
• Dangote Sugar, Most Capitalised Company
• Aliko Dangote: The Ultimate Volume Player