Aliko Dangote: Biography, Networth, family life and achievements
Aliko Dangote: Biography, Networth, family life and achievements
The founder, chairman, and CEO of the Dangote Group, the biggest industrial conglomerate in West Africa, is the Nigerian business tycoon Aliko Dangote. As of January 2023, Dangote’s net worth was assessed at US$13.5 billion by Bloomberg Billionaires Index, making him the richest black person in the world and the richest person in Africa.
Biography
In Kano, Kano State, on April 10, 1957, Dangote was born into a prosperous Hausa Muslim family. Mariya Sanusi Dantata, the mother of Dangote, was the daughter of businessman Sanusi Dantata. Sanusi Dantata’s business partner was Aliko Dangote’s father, Mohammed Dangote. Dangote is the great-grandson of Alhassan Dantata, the richest man in West Africa at the time of his death in 1955, through his mother. Dangote attended the Capital High School in Kano after finishing his education at the Sheikh Ali Kumasi Madrasa. He received his diploma from Birnin Kudu Government College in 1978. He graduated from Al-Azhar University in Cairo with a bachelor’s degree in business studies and administration.
Business Career
In 1977, the same year that Dangote moved to Lagos to grow the business, the Dangote Group was founded as a small trading company. Dangote obtained a loan from his uncle for 500,000 to start trading in commodities, including as bagged cement and agricultural products like rice and sugar. He proposed to the Central Bank of Nigeria in the 1990s that it would be more affordable for the bank to let his transport company operate their fleet of staff buses, and the proposition was also accepted. One of Africa’s biggest businesses today, the Dangote Group has international activities in Benin, Ghana, Zambia, and Togo. The Dangote Business, which now includes the Dangote Sugar Refinery, Dangote Cement, and Dangote Flour divisions, has evolved from being a trade firm to becoming the largest industrial group in Nigeria. The majority (70 percent of the market) of Nigeria’s soft drink producers, breweries, and confectioners are supplied by the Dangote Group’s refinery sector. More than 11,000 individuals are employed by the company across West Africa.
Dangote requested permission from the Nigerian Ports Authority in July 2012 to lease a vacant plot of land at the Apapa Port. Later, he constructed there for his sugar company. With an annual production of 800,000 tonnes of sugar, it is the third largest refinery in the world and the largest in Africa. The Dangote Group is a significant importer of rice, seafood, pasta, cement, and fertilizer in addition to owning salt and flour mills. To a number of nations, the corporation sells cotton, cashew nuts, cocoa, sesame seeds, and ginger. It also has significant investments in banking, transportation, textiles, oil, and gas.
With the help of the Stellantis Group, the parent company of Peugeot, the governments of Kano and Kaduna states, and other partners, Dangote declared in February 2022 that the Peugeot assembly facility would be completed in Nigeria. The launch of the Peugeot 301, Peugeot 5008, 3008, 508, and Land Trek marked the beginning of operations at the Kaduna-based Dangote Peugeot Automobiles Nigeria Limited (DPAN) facility.
Achievements
Aliko Dangote has accomplished a number of commendable tasks if he has been able to maintain his title as the richest person in Africa for ten years. How has one individual been able to constantly keep the post for the past ten years? The questions mentioned above are ones that many individuals have, and they are valid ones. Alhaji Aliko Dangote accomplished this milestone solely via his own personal and professional choices and activities throughout the years.
- Dangote made significant investments in 2011 to build a cement plant totaling $400 million and to raise its stake in Sephaku Cement (Pty) Limited, a South African company, from 19.76% to 64% with a R779 million investment. The greatest foreign direct investment (FDI) made by an African company in South Africa at the time was his investment in the cement company there.
- In 2012, Dangote Cement relocated to Southwest Nigeria to build the largest cement facility in Africa.
- Dangote made an effort to seize control of the sugar industry when the Dangote Sugar Refinery revealed plans to buy a 95% equity position in Savannah Sugar Company limited, SSC, in February 2013.
- In order to establish mills for Dangote Cement Plc, Aliko Dangote inked a massive contract with Chinese state-owned engineering firm SINOMA in 2015. Seven plants were to be built throughout the continent and one in Nepal as part of the $4.3 billion (£2.8 billion) agreement. The millionaire had done the math and anticipated that the new factories would expand the company’s production capacity by as much as 25 million metric tonnes, so it wasn’t just another way to squander money.
- Dangote Cement completed 2014 with new lines in Nigeria, factories opening in Senegal and South Africa, and additional plants in Cameroon and Zambia thanks to significant investments made over the years. By the end of the year, output capacity had climbed from slightly under 21 million tonnes in January to more than 34 million tonnes.
- One of Aliko Dangote’s most endearing inventions is still the Dangote Foundation. It has a $1.25 billion yearly endowment and is the biggest foundation in Africa. The foundation has given millions to boost dietary intake, health, educational attainment, and economic empowerment in Nigeria. It describes itself as “locally focused, but globally-minded.”
- The Dangote Group experienced a significant year in 2018. Aliko Dangote performed the groundbreaking ceremony for the development of a rice processing factory in Jigawa, which marked the conclusion of a chain of activities that began a few years earlier.
- The refinery plans that had long been in motion needed to be consolidated in 2019, which was the year. The arrival of the specially designed facility, which Dangote had since demanded to be made, was the culmination of it all. The facility, which was constructed by Sinopec, China’s largest energy and chemical business, has since been installed at the Dangote refinery and has been dubbed the largest in the world.
Aliko Dangote: Biography, Networth, family life and achievements
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Personal life
Dangote resides in Lagos, Nigeria. He has two divorces from previous marriages. He has Mariya, Halima, and Fatimah as his three daughters. Sani Dangote, Aliko’s brother, passed away from colon cancer on November 14, 2021. Dangote is renowned for leading a modest, austere life. He is said to labor 12 hours a day, starting at 5 a.m., and visits the gym six times a week.
Net Worth
Aliko Dangote, a well-known Nigerian business tycoon, is worth US$13.5 billion. His relatively new fertilizer plant and cement production company are the sources of his fortune. He has a strong commitment to supporting the neighborhood. He backs a number of charitable projects.
Awards and recognition
- The Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON), Nigeria’s second-highest honor, was given to Dangote by the previous president, Goodluck Jonathan.
- The 2014 Forbes Africa Person of the Year award went to Dangote.
- He was ranked as the “Most Powerful Man in Africa” for six years in a row, from 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018.
- In 2014, he was listed CNBC’s “Top 25 Businessmen in the World” who changed and shaped the century.
- In April 2014, he was listed among 100 most influential people in the world.
- In October 2015, Dangote was listed among “50 Most Influential Individuals in the World” by Bloomberg Markets.
- He won “The Guardian Man of the Year 2015”.
- He won the “2016 African Business Leader Award”, organized by the Africa-America Institute (AAI).
- Dangote was cited as one of the top 100 most influential Africans by New African magazine in 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2019.
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