the biography of a richest businessman in Africa

Aliko Dangote GCON (born 10 April 1957) is a
Nigerian billionaire, [2] who owns the Dangote
Group , which has interests in commodities. The
company operates in Nigeria and other African
countries, including Benin, Ethiopia, Senegal,
Cameroon, Ghana, South Africa, Togo, Tanzania,
and Zambia. [3] As of February 2017, he had an
estimated net worth of US$12.5 billion. [2]
Dangote is ranked by Forbes magazine as the
67th richest person in the world and the richest
in Africa; [4] he peaked on the list as the 23rd
richest person in the world in 2014. [5] He
surpassed Saudi-Ethiopian billionaire
Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi in 2013 by over
$2.6 billion to become the world’s richest
person of African descent. [6]
Early life
Dangote hails from a very prominent business
family that lived in Nigeria for many years. He
is the great grand son of Alhaji Alhassan
Dantata , the richest African at the time of his
death in 1955. Aliko Dangote, an ethnic Hausa
Muslim[7] from Kano State , was born on 10
April 1957 into a wealthy Muslim family. [8][9]
Dangote said, “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. I was so interested
in business, even at that time.” [10]
Business career
Business in Nigeria
The Dangote Group was established as a small
trading firm in 1977, the same year Dangote
relocated to Lagos to expand the company. [9]
Today, it is a multi-trillion naira conglomerate
with many of its operations in Benin, Ghana,
Nigeria, and Togo. Dangote has expanded to
cover food processing, cement manufacturing,
and freight. The Dangote Group also dominates
the sugar market in Nigeria and is a major
supplier to the country’s soft drink companies,
breweries, and confectioners. The Dangote
Group has moved from being a trading
company to being the largest industrial group in
Nigeria including Dangote Sugar Refinery,
Dangote Cement , and Dangote Flour.
In July 2012, Dangote approached the Nigerian
Ports Authorities to lease an abandoned piece
of land at the Apapa Port, which was
approved. [11] He later built facilities for his
flour company there. 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 which was also
approved.
In Nigeria today, Dangote Group with its
dominance in the sugar market and refinery
business is the main supplier (70% of the
market) to the country’s soft drinks companies,
breweries and confectioners. [ citation needed ] It
is the largest refinery in Africa and the third
largest in the world, producing 800,000 tonnes
of sugar annually. Dangote Group owns salt
factories and flour mills and is a major importer
of rice, fish, pasta, cement and fertiliser. The
company exports cotton, cashew nuts, cocoa,
sesame seed and ginger to several countries. It
also has major investments in real estate,
banking, transport, textiles and oil and gas. The
company employs over 11,000 people and is
the largest industrial conglomerate in West
Africa.
Dangote has diversified into telecommunications
and has started building 14,000 kilometres of
fibre optic cables to supply the whole of Nigeria.
As a result, Dangote was honoured in January
2009 as the leading provider of employment in
the Nigerian construction industry.
He said, “Let me tell you this and I want to
really emphasize it…nothing is going to help
Nigeria like Nigerians bringing back their
money. If you give me $5 billion today, I will
invest everything here in Nigeria. Let us put our
heads together and work.” [12]
Other activities
Dangote played a prominent role in the funding
of Olusegun Obasanjo ‘s re-election bid in 2003,
to which he gave over N200 million (US$1M).
He contributed N50 million (US$0.25M) to the
National Mosque under the aegis of “Friends of
Obasanjo and Atiku”. He contributed N200
million to the Presidential Library. he book is titled – Aliko Dangote: The biography
of the richest black person in the world. And has
been accepted for publication by a publishing
company based in New York, USA will be
released to the market in June, 2012. This is the
first and only biography of this exceptional
Nigerian, and African. Written by Moshood
Ademola Fayemiwo and Margie Marie Neal.
Continue to read more about the book from the
publishers and more about the authors…
It is our pleasure to introduce to you the
biography of the richest black person in the world,
Aliko Mohammad Dangote. We were in Nigeria
for fourteen months for field work on this
important book. We visited the ancient city of
Kano in Northern Nigeria where Aliko was born,
Abuja, Lagos, Kaduna, Wudil and other important
places tracing the many paths of Aliko Dangote
and his successful career as Nigeria’s foremost
industrialist and Africa’s richest person.
You will agree with us that the achievement of
Mr. Dangote as the richest black person in the
world, according to the New York-based Forbes
magazine should be celebrated by all Africans
and the black race. In the book, we traced the
paternal family backgrounds of Mr. Dangote to
four generations beginning with Mr. Alhassan
Abdullah Dantata to Mr. Sanusi Dantata and Mrs.
Mariya Dantata-Dangote and Aliko Dangote. We
were able to secure rare photographs from the
family album in Kano, including the paternal
family of the richest black person in the world.
Our narrative included the political circumstances
that led to the death of Mr. Mohammad Dangote,
Aliko’s father in 1965 and the unrest ignited by
the removal of Mr. Mohammadu Sanusi, the Emir
of Kano and the grandfather of Dr Lamido Sanusi,
the current governor of the Central Bank of
Nigeria. We had rare interviews with many
Nigerians in Kano on how young Aliko grew up in
Kano and his formative years in the ancient city.
Next, we followed Aliko Dangote’s journey to
Lagos as a 15-year old young man under the
business wing of the late Mr. Usman Amaka
Dantata, Aliko’s uncle born in 1950 and the last
born of his maternal grandfather, who was the
younger brother of Aliko’s mother. We revealed
how Aliko Dangote had his first break in the
business world during the celebration of Festac’
77 and the first business relationship with then
35-year old Lt-Gen Olusegun Obasanjo and the
late Major-General Shehu Musa Yar’Adua. We
unearthed the secret of Mr. Dagote’s wealth
unknown to millions of people and his
contribution to the economic development of
Nigeria and Africa. In our book, we present the
“complete” Aliko Mohammad Dangote and his
private life; the actual number of children he has,
his wives and the many women in the life of the
richest black person in the world. For the first
time, we revealed the “secrets” of the business
success of Aliko Mohammad Dangote and draw
certain commonalities with other billionaires of
the world. Our searchlight did not escape the
philanthropic activities of Nigeria’s private
employer of labor as well, including his political
cum business connections with all Nigerian
leaders, beginning with Mr. Olusegun Obasanjo,
Shehu Shagari, the late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua
and the current Nigerian president, Mr. Goodluck
Jonathan.