Alhaji Sayyu Dantata is the great-grandchild of legendary Kano businessman, Alhaji Alhassan Dantata and he was born in 1969. He studied mechanical engineering and business administration in the United States, having attended Morris Brown College, Atlanta Georgia.
He started his career as the chief executive of Dangote Transport, the logistics division of the Dangote Group.
He realised the potential for diesel marketing when he found it difficult to procure fuel for the company’s huge fleet. The Nigerian government was the sole importer of diesel and there were chronic shortages of the product. Sayyu studied the complex allocation process and launched M.R.S Oil in 1993 with about ₦5 million start up capital. He started buying diesel from African Petroleum, Unipetrol and the Kaduna Refinery, but it took some time for the company to get a foothold in the market. At the initial stage, M.R.S even had to buy diesel from foreign firms who received allocations even though they had no offices in the country.
The company got its big break when it was hired by the NNPC in 1998 to evacuate Low Residue Stock, a by-product of the refining process. This was followed by a major order from Wale Tinubu, who gave him a big contract to supply diesel.
M.R.S had an annual turnover of ₦10 billion and shipped about 50,000 tonnes of diesel a month. The company stunned the industry when it acquired Chevron Texaco’s downstream assets for $1 billion (it was bidding against Femi Otedola’s Zennon Oil). The M.R.S group employed about 800 people.
Sayyu Dantata is very close to Aliko Dangote and Dangote backed him during his dispute with Femi Otedola, which led to some friction between Dangote and Otedola.
Alhaji Dantata served as the chairman of Chevron Oil Nigeria PLC from 03/2009–08/2012 and the chairman and CEO of MRS Nigeria PLC from 08/2012–07/2017. He has been the chairman of MRS Holdings since 2017. MRS Holdings group of companies include the likes of Corlay Global SA, Ovlas Trading SA and Ovlas Services Geneva. He is also a director of Hydro Alternative Energy, Inc.
Sayyu Dantata speaking about MRS Oil and Gas in 2012.
Alhaji Sayyu Dantata was a regular on the celebrity pages of newspapers and magazines in the early and mid-2000s due to his relationship with Linda Mesrob.
Alhaji Dantata was in the news again in 2012 when Chris Brown stayed at his house on Banana Island. Chris Brown had come to Nigeria for a concert and the organisers had booked a suite at Eko Hotel for him, but he was not happy with the suite, so the organisers put him up at Sayyu Dantata’s house and he was really impressed. He took to Instagram to post about this big house that he was in in Nigeria (see the thread here https://www.nairaland.com/1142426/owner-mansion-chris-brown-stayed).
Sayyu Dantata also grabbed the headlines on all the blogs in 2019, during the massive Apapa traffic jam, when he flew himself to his Apapa office in a helicopter. This is a video of his staff hailing him as he landed in his helicopter.
He also arrived the Kaduna Polo Club for the Georgian Cup Competition in a helicopter, but there was almost a tragedy when he was leaving the club because the crowd refused to give enough space for the helicopter to take off and some people actually hung on to the helicopter’s landing skids as it took off. See the video below.
Halima Aliko Dangote is a Nigerian businesswoman, philanthropist and entrepreneur. She is Aliko Dangote’s daughter and she holds a bachelors’ degree in marketing from the American Intercontinental University, London, United Kingdom (2005), and a masters’ in business administration obtained from Webster Business School, London, also in the United Kingdom (2006).
She is the Group Executive Director, Commercial Operations of Dangote Group. She also serves on the boards of the Aliko Dangote Foundation, Dangote Industries Limited (DIL) and the National Salt Company of Nigeria (NASCON).
She started her career as a Business Analyst with KPMG Professional Services, Lagos, Nigeria, in 2007, and was primarily involved in business performance improvement processes, development of strategy and models for financial and operational improvements, policy formulation and implementation for public and private sector clients.
In 2008, she joined DIL as a Management Trainee, where she demonstrated competence that led to her being assigned the role of Special Assistant to the President/Chief Executive, with a wide span of responsibilities including attending all meetings—both local and international—with the President/Chief Executive, providing strategic support, and advising on strategy and management decisions.
Halima, who was later appointed pioneer MD/CEO of MHF Properties Limited, Lagos, Nigeria, in 2011, was responsible for setting up and managing the company. She was elevated to the position of Executive Director at NASCON, in 2013, and Executive Director, DIL, in 2014, with specific responsibilities that include: enhancing performance of DIL’s subsidiary companies by ensuring shared services across companies; supporting capital raising initiatives; and putting in place, Group-wide human resources and administration policies and systems.
She is, in addition, responsible for new business development and project management; working closely with the President/CE and other members of the Executive Team to develop geographic and sectoral expansion plans for the Group. She currently serves as a member of the project management team that is overseeing the development and financing of the Group’s newest businesses including an $8billion refinery and a $1.5billion fertiliser plant, both in Nigeria where she scrutinizes and monitor systems, process and outcome. She also represents DIL on the board of directors of NASCON, which generated revenues of $82million and profit after tax of $17million in 2012; focusing on quality, safety, performance and effective governance systems.
Halima was appointed a Trustee of the Dangote Foundation in 2011 with specific mandates that include helping to develop and shape the vision of the Foundation, and working closely with the head of the foundation to define the Foundation’s strategy, set annual targets, monitor performance and impact of grant recipients.
She has attended a number of high profile leadership development programmes both within and outside the country. Some of them include Programme for Leadership Development (PLD) of the Harvard Business School (ongoing); Executive Development Programme, Kellogg School of Management (2013); Finance and Accounting for the Non-Financial Executive, Columbia Business School (2013); and Company Direction Course, Institute of Directors Lagos, Nigeria (2012).
Halima is bringing her diverse international exposure to the business, which is currently at the cusp of a major expansion drive designed to position the Group as a Fortune 100 Company within the next few years.
Halima Aliko Dangote and Didier Drogba discuss philanthropy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYrjwIbstgw Halima Dangote said that the inspiration for their philanthropy comes from her grandmother (Mariya Sanusi Dangote). She said that she and her father lived with her grandmother and she remembers being woken at 12am to go to the hospital to visit the sick. She said that her grandmother believed that you shouldn’t only give to the needy, but you also have to listen to them and understand what they are going through.
Halima Dangote represents her father and delivers the keynote speech at the Africa Business Forum 2019.
These rich northern elite need to do more for their people. They need to educated the masses to stop breeding like rats. Open free schools for the children of the poor.
These are the .sjor beneficiaries of one nigeria. I doubt say Southerner has benefitted as much as this northern rich family
Well life is the way it is, we bring nothing here, we are taking nothing out but the memories of the life we had lived ..Allah always knows best. Rest in Peace to Hajia and my condolences to her husband .
