Aliko Dangote is a Nigerian business magnate who is the founder, chairman, and CEO of the Dangote Group, the largest industrial conglomerate in West Africa.
Aliko Dangote: Profile Summary
Full Name: Aliko Dangote
Date of birth: 10 April 1957
Age: 65 years old
Place of birth: Kano, British Nigeria
Occupation: Industrialist
Education: Government College, Birnin Kudu
Alma Mater: Al-Azhar University
Active Years: 1977–present
Known for: Founder and CEO, Dangote Group
Net Worth: US$18.7 billion
Aliko Dangote: Early Life and Education
Dangote was born into a prosperous Hausa Muslim family in Kano, Kano State. He was born on 10th April 1957. Businessman Sanusi Dantata’s daughter Mariya Sanusi Dantata was the mother of Aliko Dangote.
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.
Aliko Dangote: Career Highlight
In 1977, the same year that Dangote moved to Lagos to grow the business, a modest trading company called The Dangote Group was founded.
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 Group, 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 business 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, fish, 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.
Aliko Dangote: Net Worth
In 2007, Dangote became the first billionaire in Nigeria. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Dangote reportedly increased his personal wealth by $9.2 billion in 2013, ranking him as the thirty-fifth richest person in the world and the richest African at the moment.
The HSBC disclosures in 2015 made it known that Dangote was a client of HSBC and that he owned assets in the British Virgin Islands, a tax haven.
Dangote is the richest person in Africa as of June 2022, with an estimated net worth of $20 billion.
According to Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Dangote’s net worth dropped to an estimated value of US$18.7 billion as of January 2023.
