Richest Man in Africa( Alico Dangote)

LIFE OF ALIKO DANGOTE

Hello, fellow pals well its been a while but am finally back. You might be wondering why I don’t write much recently but don’t worry am not gone forever.

Well as I am back today I would like to write about someone today. I don’t think you all know him but what I do know is that when you have heard of him you know that he is the Richest Man in Africa and the 67th Richest Man according to Forbes Magazines. That’s pretty amazing for an African gentleman( Nigerian).

Life while growing

Aliko Dangote is a decent man who hails from a very prominent business family in Nigeria for many years. He was also the great-grandson of Alhaji Alhassan Dantata, surprisingly he was also the richest man at that time during his death which was in 1955. Dangote was born on !0th April 1957 in a wealthy Muslim family and was an ethnic Hausa Muslim. Dangote once 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.

His wonderful Business Career

Dangote Group was founded or established as a very small trading firm in 1977, the same year Dangote relocated to Lagos to expand the company. Now it is a multi-trillion company with many branches of operation in Ghana, Nigeria, Togo and Benin. His group currently cover in the manufacturing of cement, food processing and freight. In Nigeria, Dangote Group dominates the sugar market and supplies largely to the country when it comes to soft drinks, breweries and confectioners. It is amazing how it has moved from a mere trading company to being the largest industrial group in Nigeria.

In the 1990s Dangote approached the Central Bank of Nigeria with his idea that it would be cheaper for the bank to allow his transport company

to manage their fleet of staff buses, and this proposal was gladly accepted. In July 2012, Dangote approached the Nigerian Ports to lease an abandoned piece of land at the Apapa Port, which was also approved with ease I think. Using that land he built facilities for his flour company.

Today Dangote Group is dominating the sugar market and refinery business is the main supplier to the country’s soft drinks companies, breweries and confectioners in Nigeria. It is the third-largest refinery in the world and the largest in Africa which is producing 800,00 tonnes of sugar annually. Dangote Group owns salt factories and flour mills and is a major importer of rice, fish, pasta, cement and fertiliser. It also exports cotton, cashew nuts, cocoa, sesame seeds and ginger to many countries around the world. His group has also invested a lot in real estate, banking, transport, textiles and oil and gas. The company as at now employs about 11,000 people and is currently the largest industrial conglomerate in West Africa, this is amazing right.

He has moved into telecommunications now and I hear he has started building 14,000 kilometres of fibre optic cables to supply the whole of Nigeria incredible if I may add. Due to all this 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.” impressive isn’t it. 

In 2013 Dangote reportedly added $9.2 billion to his personal wealth according to the Bloomberg index mow making him the 30th richest person in the world. In May 2015, Dangote wholeheartedly expressed that he would want to purchase the English football team Arsenal. He also stated that he would fire the long-standing manager Arsene Wenger if he made the purchase.

Awards

He was named the Forbes Africa Person of the year 2014.n 2013, Alhaji Dangote and six other prominent Nigerians were conferred Honorary Citizenship of Arkansas State by Governor Mike Beebe who also proclaimed May 30 of every year as Nigeria Day in the US.

This is just a few things that the wonderful and influential Aliko Dangote has done and I think there is more to come.