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The Story Of The KANO Born, LAGOS Boy
Have you noticed that Billionaire businessman, Alhaji Aliko Dangote loves to wear Yoruba caps to parties? Have you also noticed that his style of Agbada embroidery is also the Yoruba way?
If you haven’t, we can tell you that authoritatively.
We can also tell you why he prefers to look Yoruba, though he is Kano born. Its because the Founder, Chairman & CEO of Dangote Group has spent over 40 years of his life in Lagos. He lived for very many years in Surulere area of Lagos, where he met and became friends with so many other Lagos big boys like Femi Otedola. When Lagos State clocked 40, Aliko did a TV promo in which he narrated his Lagos Story, that he was one of those who came to Lagos with practically nothing but made it in Lagos.
Over the years he has interacted with many Lagos businessmen and he has imbibed the Culture and Tradition of the Yorubas.
Many do not know that the bulk of his investments are located in Yorubaland.
In those good old days when he was much younger, before he got busy with business, Aliko used yo be a big Socialite and he was a great fan of King Sunny Ade who crafted an anthem for him.
And so any time KSA spotted Aliko walking into any party where he was on bandstand, he would immediately change the tune and praise sing Aliko.
The song, ALIKO DANGOOO, Alhaji Dangote, soon became something of an anthem. “Seriki Me Sugar, Seriki Fertilizer, Seriki Rice, Aliko Dangoo, Alihaji Dangote”.
That was how Aliko got into the mainstream of Lagos social establishment, in a very subtle way.
Right now, Alhaji Aliko Dangote is ageing gracefully. He is 67. He is the proud founder of the largest industrial conglomerate in West Africa. The Bloomberg Billionaires Index estimated his net worth at $16.1 billion in November 2023, making him the richest person in Africa, the world’s richest black person, and the world’s 107th richest person overall.
Let’s tell you more about this Kano born, Lagos Big Boy. Dangote was born into a wealthy Hausa Muslim family on 10 April 1957 in Kano, which was then part of British Nigeria. His mother, Mariya Sanusi Dantata, was the daughter of businessman Sanusi Dantata. His father, Mohammed Dangote, was a business associate of Dantata. Through his mother, he is the great-grandson of Alhassan Dantata, the richest person in West Africa at the time of his death in 1955. Dangote’s brother, Sani (1959/60–2021), was also a businessman. Dangote was educated at the Sheikh Ali Kumasi Madrasa, followed by Capital High School in 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 in 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 less expensive 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 being 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, and 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.
In July 2012, Dangote approached the Nigerian Ports Authority to lease an abandoned piece of land at the Apapa Port, which was approved. He later built facilities for his sugar company there. It is the largest refinery in Africa and the third largest in the world, producing 800,000 metric tons of sugar annually. The Dangote Group owns salt factories and flour mills and is a major importer of rice, fish, pasta, cement, and fertilizer. The company exports cotton, cashew nuts, cocoa, sesame seeds, and ginger to several countries. Additionally, it has major investments in real estate, banking, transport, textiles, Oil, & Gas.
In February 2022, Dangote announced the completion of the Peugeot assembling facility in Nigeria following his partnership with Stellantis Group, the parent company of Peugeot, and the Kano and Kaduna State governments. The new automobile company, Dangote Peugeot Automobiles Nigeria Limited (DPAN) factory, which is based in Kaduna, commenced operations with the roll-out of the Peugeot 301, 508, 3008, 5008, and Landtrek.
On 22 May 2023 in Lekki, Nigeria, Dangote commissioned the Dangote Refinery. The plant plans to export surplus petrol, turning Africa’s biggest oil producer into an export hub for petroleum products. It also plans to export diesel, according to Dangote, who funded the refinery’s construction. The refinery is situated on a 6,180-acre (2,500 hectares) site at the Lekki Free Trade Zone, Lekki, Lagos State. It is supplied with crude oil by the largest sub-sea pipeline infrastructure in the world at 1,100 kilometres (680 mi) long.
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 30th-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. That has changed now.
Dangote had a prominent role in the financing of President Olusegun Obasanjo’s re-election bid in 2003, to which he gave over N200 million (US$2 million). He contributed N50 million (US$500 thousand) to the National Mosque under the aegis of “Friends of Obasanjo and Atiku”.
Dangote also contributed N200 million to the Presidential Library. These highly controversial gifts to members of the ruling PDP party have generated significant concerns despite highly publicized anti-corruption drives during Obasanjo’s second term.
In 2011, Dangote was appointed by President Goodluck Jonathan to serve as a member of his Economic Management Team. Dangote went on to serve on a special advisory committee for Muhammadu Buhari’s reelection campaign.
Dangote lives in Lagos. He is a hardworking businessman and reportedly works 12 hours every day from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. and runs 10 miles on a treadmill almost every day.
He has three daughters named Halima, Mariya, and Fatimah, and an adopted son named Abdulrahman. Halima followed him into the business world and is currently his company’s Executive Director of Commercial Operations.
Dangote was awarded Nigeria’s second-highest honor, the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON) by the former president, Goodluck Jonathan.
Dangote was named as the Forbes Africa Person of the Year 2014.
For 6 consecutive years, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018 Forbes listed him as the “Most Powerful Man in Africa”.
In 2014, he was listed CNBC’s “Top 25 Businessmen in the World” who changed and shaped the century.
In April 2014, Time magazine listed him among its 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.
Dangote sits on the board of the Corporate Council on Africa and is a member of the steering committee of the United Nations Secretary-General’s Global Education First Initiative, the Clinton Global Initiative and the International Business Council of the World Economic Forum. He was named co-chair of the US-Africa Business Center, in September 2016, by the US Chamber of Commerce.
In April 2017, he joined the board of directors of the Clinton Health Access Initiative. He is also on the board of One Campaign. Dangote was appointed the founding Chairman of the Nigeria End Malaria Council by President Buhari in August 2022. He is also a member of the Global End Malaria Council, along with other leaders including Bill Gates, Ray Chambers, and former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
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