EKO HOT BLOG reports that Aliko Dangote was born 10 April 1957, he is a Nigerian billionaire business magnate. Dangote is the founder and current chairman and CEO of the Dangote Group, the largest industrial conglomerate in West Africa.
Dangote was born in Kano, Kano State into a wealthy Hausa Muslim family. Dangote’s mother, Mariya Sanusi Dantata, was the daughter of businessman Sanusi Dantata. Aliko Dangote’s father, Mohammed Dangote, was a business associate of Sanusi Dantata. Through his mother, Dangote is the great-grandson of Alhassan Dantata, the richest West African at the time of his death in 1955.
Dangote was educated at the Sheikh Ali Kumasi Madrasa, followed by Capital High School, Kano. In 1978, he graduated from the Government College, Birnin Kudu. He received a bachelor’s degree in business studies and administration from Al-Azhar University, Cairo.
The Dangote Group was established as a small trading firm in 1977, the same year Dangote relocated to Lagos to expand the company. Dangote received a $500,000 loan from his uncle to begin trading in commodities including bagged cement as well as agricultural goods like rice and sugar. 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.
Today, the Dangote Group is one of the largest conglomerates in Africa, with international operations in Benin, Ghana, Zambia and Togo. The Dangote Group has moved from being a trading company to be the largest industrial group in Nigeria, encompassing divisions like Dangote Sugar Refinery, Dangote Cement, and Dangote Flour. Dangote Group dominates the sugar market in Nigeria, with its refinery business is the main supplier (70 percent of the market) to the country’s soft drink companies, breweries and confectioners. The company employs more than 11,000 people in West Africa.
Dangote became Nigeria’s first billionaire in 2007. Dangote reportedly added $9.2 billion to his personal wealth in 2013, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, making him the thirtieth-richest person in the world at the time, and the richest person in Africa. In 2015, the HSBC leaks revealed that Dangote was a HSBC client and that he had assets in a tax haven in the British Virgin Islands. As of June 2022, Dangote is the wealthiest person in Africa, with an estimated net worth of US$20 billion.
According to Forbes and Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Dangote’s net worth is estimated at around US$19.6 billion as of 20 August 2022, making him the richest person in Africa, richest black person and the 75th richest person in the world.
Dangote lives in Lagos, Nigeria, he has been married and divorced twice. He has three daughters – Mariya, Halima, Fatimah. Aliko’s brother, Sani Dangote, died on 14 November 2021 after battling colon cancer.
FURTHER READING
Dangote is known for his simple and austere lifestyle: He reportedly works 12 hours a day beginning at 5 AM and goes to the gym six times a week.
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