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People

The richest

man in

Africa

Alhajji Alko Dangote
orn in 1957, in Kano state, By 1997, Dangote had realized that companies: Dangote Sugar Refinery
BNigeria, Dangote grew up in an acting as a middleman was a very PLC., National Salt Company of Nigeria
entrepreneurial family. He was born as good as being a manufacturer, PLC., Dangote Flour Mills PLC., and
and brought a Muslim and lived life in accordingly builting a plant to produce Dangote Cements PLC. Dangote Group
a wealth family. His grandfather, Sanusi what he had been importing and now owns and operates more than 18
Dantata, was once one of the wealthiest selling for the previous 20 years: pasta, subsidiaries across a range of industries.
people in Kano. He made his fortune as sugar, salt, and flour. He later bought When Dangote Sugar debuted on the
a commodities trader, selling oats, rice, a state-owned cement company, Nigerian Stock Exchange in 2010,
sugar and others that form the basic food under a divestiture programme. He at sales had quadrupled to $450 million,
necessities of the ordinary Nigerian. significantly expanded the operations according to Forbes, making it the
When Dangote’s father died in 1965, his of the company in 2005 by constructing largest sugar refinery in Africa and by
grandfather became his guardian and a multimillion-dollar manufacturing some estimates, the second largest in the
mentor. plant. The construction was financed world. Similarly, Dangote Flour tripled
with $319 million of Dangote’s own
Having spent much of his childhood money in addition to a $479 million revenue to $270 million.
with his grandfather, Dangote developed loan from the International Finance The business empire he began to build
interest in business, once quoted saying, Corporation, a sister organization of the more than three decades ago, the
“I can remember when I was in primary World Bank. Dangote Group, is one of the largest
school, I would go and buy cartons of private-sector employers in Nigeria
sweets and selling them to make money. Over the years, Dangote has expanded as well as one of the most valuable on
I was so interested in business, even at into new business segments, including the continent, making Dangote the
that time.” telecommunications, real estate, and richest man in Africa, with an estimated
Dangote’s entrepreneurial interests were steel manufacturing. Today Dangote net worth of $14.1 billion. According to
carried into adulthood. Graduating, Group, is the largest conglomerate in Forbes, he’s also the richest black person
1977, at age 21 with a business degree West Africa, with interests encompassing in the word. Most of the Dangote’s wealth
from Egypt’s Al-Azhar University, he many industries, including oil and gas, is derived 85.2 percent from majority
returned to Nigeria, moved to Lagos, consumer goods and manufacturing. stakes in Dangote Cement, which is the
where he immersed himself into An estimated 80% of his conglomerate’s largest cement producer in sub-Saharan
business. revenue comes from the Cement Africa.
business.
Using a $3,000 loan from his According to Forbes magazine, the Dangote is said to have settled on
uncle to import and sell agricultural Dangote Cement subsidiary produces a model were his businesses always
commodities in Nigeria, his native 44 million metric tons of cement every reinvested the majority of profits back
country. Upon repaying the loan, he year and plans to increase output by 33% into his businesses, this being the reason
borrowed yet another loan of $500,000 by end of this year, 2020. Also under the his companies and group has grown
from his uncle, which launched him into group is the world’s third-largest sugar exponentially since inception, He is
big business, dealing in commodities refinery. Together, all of his publicly
such as cement and agricultural goods. traded companies make up a quarter of quoted in a media interview saying: ‘‘We
Two of his main imports were rice from the market capitalization of the Nigerian [Dangote Group] are not doing like other
Thailand and sugar from Brazil. These Stock Exchange. Africans who keep most of their money
business ventures became so successful in the bank. We do not keep money in
that he was able to repay his uncle within Each of his manufacturing divisions has the bank. We fully invest whatever we
months of starting the operation. since been separated into publicly traded have and we keep on investing”.

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