The legend with different strokes
Aliko Dangote is undoubtedly Africa’s richest man. To boot, he is the richest black man alive. He is a descendant of the wealthy Dantata family of Kano.
A lot has been written about his business acumen. Some hail him as the biggest inspiration for entrepreneurship in Africa. They see in him a suave business man who has the master key to unlock the best kept secrets of business. Others see him as a hard-nosed monopolist foisted on Nigeria by the country’s political-military complex. They think his business ethics have no normative base but purely Machiavellian and driven by profit-at-any-cost capitalistic tendencies.

Background & Net Worth
Known for his ruthless and efficient approach to business, Dangote as of 19th May of this year, has a net worth of around $13 billion according to Forbes, making him the richest African for the 7th year running and the 100thwealthiest person in the world. At the height of his financial ascendancy, Dangote added $24.2 billion to his personal wealth in 2013 alone. If he had maintained that pace, he would have been the world’s richest man in the next four years.
Aliko Dangote is said to have capitalised upon his fairly privileged (in comparison to most Nigerians) upbringing in Kano, Nigeria to construct a gigantic business empire that spreads across Africa. He started early, buying sweets and selling them at a profit in school. This led to Dangote enrolling in Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt to study business. Once he graduated from the university, he returned to Nigeria, aiming to start his own business, aged just 21.
He accomplished his dream, setting up a small trading company in 1977 in Kano, the same year he moved to Lagos. His Uncle gave him N500,000 when he was coming to Lagos. That was where the mustard seed became a giant sequoia. From trading, the company has forayed into food processing, cement manufacturing, freight, sugar refinery and flour mill. Indeed, the Dangote Group is reputed to be a major supplier to top soft drink companies, breweries, and confectioners operating in Nigeria.
By the early 1990s, the Group had grown into one of the largest trading conglomerates operating in the country. In 1999, following the transition to civilian rule and after an inspirational visit to Brazil to study the emerging manufacturing sector, the Group made a strategic decision to transit from a trading-based business into a fully-fledged manufacturing operation. In a country where imports constitute the vast majority of consumed goods, a clear gap existed for a manufacturing operation that could meet the ‘basic needs’ of a vast and fast-growing population.
The Group embarked on an ambitious construction programme, initially focused on the construction of flour mills, a sugar refinery and a pasta factory. In 2000, the Group, in a move regarded in-house as the Turning Point, acquired the Benue Cement Company Plc from the Nigerian government and in 2003 commissioned the Obajana Cement Plant; the largest cement plant in sub-Saharan Africa. The Group is now one of the largest manufacturing conglomerates in Africa and is pursuing further backward integration alongside an expansion programme in existing and new sectors. Now into oil and gas, the group is about finishing the construction of the biggest oil refinery in Africa in Lagos.
Over the past 35 years, the Dangote Group has earned its owner billions of dollars. Last year alone, the group generated over $4.1 billion (N1.5 trillion) revenue. That is more than the budget of Lagos State, Nigeria’s most buoyant state and the 5th largest economy in Africa.
Based in Lagos, Nigeria, the Dangote Group operates in ten African countries, some of which include Benin Republic, Cameroon, Ghana, South Africa, Togo, and Zambia.


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