Aliko Dangote, the world’s richest Black billionaire and founder of the Dangote Group and owner of other 15 business companies, has been instrumental in altering Africa’s business culture and making Nigeria as one of the most industrialized countries on the continent.
With diversified holdings covering many sectors in Nigeria and across Africa, Dangote’s expansive companies under Dangote Group have positioned him as Nigeria’s second-largest employer of labor, trailing only the Federal Government.
His net worth is an incredible $10.8 billion, making him the world’s richest Black billionaire and Africa’s second-richest individual. The coveted title of Africa’s richest man, however, was recently snatched by South African billionaire Johann Rupert, who surpassed Dangote in June.
At the center of his fortune is his controlling 86.81% interest in Dangote Cement, Africa’s largest cement manufacturer and the world’s third largest. This substantial investment solidifies his status as the wealthiest investor on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX). He also has shares in several other Nigerian companies listed on the NGX, including Dangote Sugar, NASCON Allied Industries, Jaiz Bank, and Tony Elumelu’s United Bank for Africa.
Dangote’s commercial empire is not limited to cement. He has a wide range of interests, including sugar, salt, oil, fertilizer, and packaged food. Notably, his worldwide oil market influence has been strengthened by the recent commissioning of his petrochemical complex, the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals Plant.
This follows the inauguration of his much-anticipated Dangote fertilizer Plant, which began operations in March 2022. The cutting-edge fertilizer factory has an annual output capability of up to 2.8 million tonnes of urea.
Dangote was born in 1957 in Kano State, Nigeria, into an entrepreneurial family. He was reared as a Muslim in an upper-class family. Sanusi Dantata, Dangote’s grandfather, was previously ranked one of Kano’s wealthiest in Nigeria. He built his riches by selling commodities such as oats and rice. Dantata took over as Dangote’s guardian in 1965 following his father’s death.
Dangote became interested in business after spending much of his childhood with his grandfather, saying, “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.” Even back then, I was quite interested in business.”
Dangote graduated from Egypt’s Al-Azhar University, one of Islam’s most prominent universities, at the age of 21.Dangote borrowed $3,000 from his uncle shortly after graduating from college at the age of 21 to import and sell agricultural commodities in Nigeria, his native country. The loan cash enabled him to purchase soft goods at wholesale levels from international sources. Rice from Thailand and sugar from Brazil were two of his key imports. He subsequently sold such things in tiny quantities to his village’s residents at a profit.
The venture immediately proved profitable and became a cash cow. Dangote claims in an interview with Forbes that on his finest days, he made a daily net profit of $10,000. This enabled him to reimburse his uncle’s loan in three months. Dangote was eventually able to grow a local commodities trading business into a multibillion-dollar corporation.
Dangote discovered that operating as a middleman was an expensive undertaking in 1997, so he created a plant to produce the products he had been importing and selling for the previous 20 years: pasta, sugar, salt, and wheat.
Around the same time, Dangote was given control of a state-owned cement company. In 2005, Dangote significantly expanded its activities by constructing a multimillion-dollar manufacturing plant. The structure was paid for with Dangote’s own money as well as a $479 million loan from the International Finance Corporation, The World Bank’s sister organization.
He built three publicly traded companies: Dangote Sugar Refinery PLC, National Salt Company of Nigeria PLC, and Dangote Cement PLC. Dangote Sugar Refinery PLC. National Salt Company of Nigeria PLC. Dangote Cement PLC. are the three publicly traded enterprises that he founded.
Dangote has always put the majority of his income back into his enterprises, as he indicated, and Dangote Group is not like other Africans who retain the majority of their money in banks. We don’t have any money in the bank. We fully invest whatever we have and will continue to invest, he said.
liko Dangote is also a well-known philanthropist who established his own private charitable foundation in 1994. The Aliko Dangote Foundation (ADF) is committed to improving people’s lives throughout Africa through funding health, education, and economic empowerment activities. The foundation is now Sub-Saharan Africa’s largest private foundation.
In 2013, Dangote’s Foundation began collaborating with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to eradicate polio and enhance routine vaccines across the country. As a result, In August 2020, the whole African continent was officially certified as free of wild polio.
