Tulsaguy:




Nah. Just recently Omokri lambasted northern Billionaires for neglecting the region after Femi otedola donated some Billion

naptu2:





It might be a different toilet block attached to each hostel of the boarding house, each classroom block and also to the administrative block.

Anyway, from what I've read, the previous facilities were totally inadequate and these new facilities are needed because the school has been ravaged by cholera many times in the past.


This area of Kano (Dala) is where Alhassan Dantata settled in the early 1900s and it's where Aminu Dantata was born.


https://www.dailytrust.com.ng/kano-school-cholera-outbreak-due-to-poor-handwashing-says-study.html

blowjohn:



U have a point.
But...... I doubt if that school is a boarding school. Toilets and boreholes are typically not issues facing the average boarding school in Nigeria.
Boarding schools are usually not the type to lack such facilities. Boarding schools r damn expensive partly cos they are sorto a second home, complete with facilities to make children feel comfortable away from home.
And for a settlement like that, how many people will have the money to send their kids to a boarding school?

naptu2:


This is a government school. It is not a private school. It is because of lack of funds and lack of facilities that there has been cholera outbreaks in the school several times and that's why Dantata made this donation.

naptu2:
Part 3

Sanusi Dantata (Aliko Dangote’s grandfather)

www.nairaland.com/attachments/1126439_947130_651635298183835_1557471046_n_jpg6a3a58e3cc39ad89ef65c2a9ac02c4e7


Sanusi Dantata (born c. 1919, date of death unknown) was a Nigerian entrepreneur and son of Alhassan Dantata.


In the 1960s, he was the largest licensed produce buying agent of groundnut in Nigeria. However by 1980, he had relinquished some of his business interest to his sons, including the eldest, Abdulkadir Sanusi Dantata, who co-founded Dantata and Sawoe and Asada Farms.


Business network

The Dantata family operated their businesses partly through a patrimonial system of credit allocation, trade and business transfers to kin, household and other members of their clientage. At one point in time, both Sanusi and his brother, Aminu controlled about 200 agents involved in buying Kola nut, Livestock, Ground nut and Merchandise. The system involved about five autonomous level of associates, agents, and farmers. Some members of these system engage in buying goods from restricted rural areas and transporting it to the city where another group of agents in the Urban area buys the goods and store them in stead for Dantata. Also the Dantata family through marriage and credit extension is linked with a few independent trading families in Kano and Northern Nigeria.


Sanusi Dantata was a personal friend of the Qadiriyya scholar, Ali Kumasi and supported some of the latter's religious works in Kano. His support for Ali Kumasi led him into conflict with Nasiru Kabara, the leader of the Qadiriyya movement in Kano and West Africa and a former tutor of Sanusi. Both Kumasi and Dantata tried to promote an independent Qadiriyya scholarship and religious authority, challenging the leadership of Kabaya. However, by the early 1970s, both men joined the Kabara faction of Kano Qadiriyya.

naptu2:
Part 4

Abdulkadir Sanusi Dantata,

www.nairaland.com/attachments/660468_abdulkadir_dantata_200_150_jpg538ec72a3e0075751e0afbb6b57a4032

September 1 1945- February 7 2012 (Aliko Dangote's uncle). He gave Aliko Dangote a business loan with which Dangote started the Dangote Group

The late Alhaji Dantata was born in Sarari Dantata Quarters in the ancient city of Kano to the famous Dantata family on September 1, 1945. He was the eldest son of Sanusi Dantata, son of business mogul and patriarch, Alhassan Dantata, but by dint of hard work, he built a stupendous fortune for himself.

Not even the family's renowned business and trade patrimony, which had already guaranteed him a financially secure future, could stop the late Dantata from knowledge acquisition. This took him first to Sudan and then Kumasi, Ghana, where he obtained a certificate in advanced Islamic studies in 1956. Four years later, he returned to Nigeria to complete primary education at Kuka Primary School, Fagge in Kano. Unlike some of his peers, a thirst for knowledge nudged him on to acquire the Grade Two Teachers’ Certificate in 1968 before he joined the family business of cotton, groundnut and other agricultural products. In fact, the family business line was the largest licensed produce-buying agent of groundnut in Nigeria in the 1960s.

BUSINESS

Alhaji Dantata would not be content with that; he needed to express himself as he established his Dantata Land and Sea, a company that was into transportation, civil engineering and farming. The business initiatives further crystallised into one of the biggest construction firms - Dantata and Sawoe (founded in 1975) - which he partnered with German interests. As chairman of various business interests including the Asada Group, Brunelli Construction Co. Ltd, WJ Syndicate, Goguwasia Trading Company, Beijing-China, the sky was his limit. His business empire traversed construction, shipping, farming, trading and manufacturing.

Long before he died on February 7 this year, he had deservedly earned for himself the national award of the Commander of the Order of the Federal Republic (CFR) for his industry and contributions to the development of the country.


A stream of eminent personalities and well wishers at his burial could have indicated his disposition to people and life generally.  Dantata’s health challenges may have cut short his other taller ambitions, but he would remain a beacon of hope and inspiration to budding businessmen.

naptu2:
Part 5

Hajia Mariya Sanusi Dangote (nee Dantata)

www.nairaland.com/attachments/5869787_alhadjamariyasanusidantatamrealikodangote777x4372_jpeg60ba08c3c31c9a5fc8def8a7c9b6e5c5

Billionaire businesswoman, Mariya Dangote, is the daughter of Sanusi Dantata and granddaughter of legendary businessman Alhassan Dantata. She is married to Mohammed Dangote (a business associate of Alhassan Dantata) for whom she had Aliko Dangote, a multi-billionaire businessman. Her brother is Abdulkadir Sanusi Dantata, one of the founders of Dantata & Sawoe Construction Company and Asada Farms.

She sits on the boards of numerous companies, including MRS Oil and Gas, Mentholatum Nigeria Limited and the Dangote group. She is also known for her philanthropy, donating a hospital, which she built at Rijiya Lemu, to the Kano State Government in 2003.

naptu2:
Part 6

Alhaji Aliko Dangote

www.nairaland.com/attachments/660801_dangote_jpgb76b8418fae8e5dcfc3177215383c6c1

Aliko Dangote was born in the northern Nigerian state of Kano on April 10, 1957 into a wealthy Hausa-Muslim family. His mother Mariya Sanusi Dantata was the granddaughter of legendary businessman Alhassan Dantata, and his father Mohammed Dangote was Dantata’s business associate.

Dangote had an early interest in business “I can remember when I was in primary school, I would go and buy cartons of sweets and I would start selling them just to make money. I was so interested in business, even at that time.” He attended the Al Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt (the oldest university in the world) studying business studies, before working for his uncle Sanusi Abdulkadir Dantata who eventually gave him a business loan at the age of 21.


Dangote Group

Dangote started trading commodities and building materials in Kano in 1977. He moved to Lagos that summer and, encouraged by the success of his business ventures so far, incorporated two companies in 1981


The Dangote Group, originally a small trading firm founded in 1977, is now a multi-trillion-naira conglomerate with operations in Benin, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroun, Zambia, South Africa and Togo. Dangote’s businesses include food processing, cement manufacturing, and freight. The Dangote Group dominates the sugar market in Nigeria: it is the major sugar supplier to the country’s soft drink companies, breweries, and confectioners. Dangote Group has moved from being a trading company to Nigeria’s largest industrial group, including Dangote Sugar Refinery (the most capitalized company on the Nigeria Stock Exchange, valued at over US$3 billion with Aliko Dangote’s equity topping US$2 billion), Africa’s largest Cement Production Plant: Obajana Cement, Dangote Flour amongst others.


Aliko Dangote has a knack for seeing opportunity that others can't see. He approached the Nigerian Ports Authority with the idea of leasing an abandoned piece of land at the Apapa Port, where he subsequently built facilities for his flour company. When other flour companies protested, the chairman of the NPA, Chief Olabode George stated that Dangote was the one who came up with the idea. Similarly, 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.


Today Dangote Group dominates the sugar market in Nigeria and Dangote Sugar Refinery is the main supplier (70% of the market) to the country’s soft drinks companies, breweries and confectioners. It is the largest refinery in Africa and the third largest in the world producing 800,000 tonnes of sugar annually. Dangote Group also owns salt factories and flour mills and is a major importer of rice, fish, pasta, cement and fertilizer. The company also exports cotton, cashew nuts, cocoa, sesame seed and ginger to several countries. Dangote Group also has major investments in real estate, banking, transport, textiles and oil and gas. It employs over 18,000 people and is the largest industrial conglomerate in West Africa.


Dangote is branching into telecommunications and has started building 14,000 kilometres of fibre optic cables to supply the whole of Nigeria. He was honoured in January 2009 as the leading provider of employment in the Nigerian construction industry.

“[Nigerians] can be even bigger than me, ” he said “you just have to believe that yes, there is a future in this country of ours and I can tell you right now, I don’t believe we have even started doing anything in Nigeria because the opportunities are so enormous. I don’t even know where to start.


“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.”


Political contributions and associates

Dangote played a prominent role in the funding of Obasanjo’s re-election campaign in 2003, to which he contributed over N200 million (US$2M). He gave N50 million (US$0.5M) to the National Mosque under the aegis of “Friends of Obasanjo and Atiku”, and contributed N200 million to the Presidential Library. These controversial gifts to members of the ruling People’s Democratic Party have contributed to concerns over continued graft despite highly publicized anti-corruption drive during Obasanjo’s second term. Alhaji Dangote was also one of the major players in getting President Umaru Yar’Adua elected.


Nigerians are generally proud of Dangote’s achievements, but many insist that his business acquisitions were unfairly gained due to his links with Nigeria’s ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo and that his virtual monopoly over much of Nigeria’s commodities is stifling competition. “I am close to people in government because I am one of the big businessmen in Nigeria,” he said. “If we don’t have the right people there then all the money I have is useless”.


The recent increase in cement prices, an industry dominated by Dangote Group, forced the government to allow cement imports in the hope that the competition would lower prices, much to the annoyance of Dangote. Dangote’s unanimous election as president of the Nigerian Stock Exchange further led to accusations of unfair business practice as two of his businesses are listed on the exchange.


Wealth

Worth $3.3 billion in 2008, Dangote was the richest black African to appear on Forbes’ Billionaire list and beat Oprah Winfrey to become the world’s richest black person. Alhaji Aliko Dangote has been a major player in Nigerian commerce since the 1970s and his business empire controls the import and export of a variety of products in West Africa. This led to speculation that he was the wealthiest African in the world, but he said, “I think I have to be rated by Forbes magazine first before I can be [called] the richest man in Africa.”

Dangote got his wish in 2008 when he debuted as the first Nigerian on the annual Forbes’ Billionaires list with a $3.3 billion fortune, and became the richest black person on the planet taking the title from media mogul Oprah Winfrey ($2.5 billion). He was ranked No. 334 in the world (No. 1 was America’s Warren Buffet with $62 billion), and although Egypt (The Sawiris family: $32 billion) and South Africa (The Oppenheimer family: $5.7 billion) had richer men, Aliko is the first African billionaire of fully Black African ancestry to be listed.

Sub-Saharan Africans were usually absent from Forbes magazine’s annual compilation of the world’s 1,000+ billionaires. Past African presidents like Congo’s Mobutu and Nigeria’s Sani Abacha probably became billionaires after pocketing their country’s wealth, but Forbes did not confirm or legitimise their money.

Dangote was the first verifiable Black African billionaire, with Patrice Motsepe of South Africa also on the list with $2.4 billion from his mining company. Forbes reportedly wanted to feature Dangote on the cover of the 2008 magazine but he politely declined.

He said he was grateful to God for the achievement: “The signs are very good for Nigeria. Next year, I expect at least five Nigerians to be on the list.”

But that was not to be as the 2009 list showed the effects of the global recession with many billionaires making huge loses or dropping off the list altogether. Aliko’s wealth fell to $2.5 billion owing to a 70% fall in share prices, but he moved up the world ranking to No. 261. The 2009 list also featured another Nigerian, oil magnate Femi Otedola with $1.2 billion.

Dangote controls much of Nigeria’s commodities trade through his corporate and political connections. With an estimated net worth of around US$ 2.5 billion (2009), he was ranked by Forbes as one of the richest black African citizens and the third richest person of African descent in the world behind Mohammed Al Amoudi ($9.0 billion) and Oprah Winfrey ($2.7 billion.).

In 2011, Dangote was ranked as the richest person of African descent, with an estimated worth of $13.8 billion, relegating Mohammed al Amoudi (12.3 billion) and Oprah Winfrey (2.7 billion) to second and third places respectively.

In the 2012 Forbes list, Dangote is ranked number 76 with a net worth of $11.2b.

naptu2:
Part 7

Alhaji Tajudeen Aminu Dantata.


www.nairaland.com/attachments/737877_Tajudeen20Dantata_jpga68d356e510a6c7b332fef4a806bb4db

Alhaji Tajudeen Dantata attended Saint Thomas Secondary School Kano, Victoria College in Alexandria Egypt and Manaret College in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia before attending West London University, where he bagged a B.Sc in Business Studies in 1988.


He started his business career in the Dantata group as a group director in 1988 and was appointed the Group Managing Director in 1994. He has held the position since then, consolidating the group to what it is today- a conglomerate of successful companies.

Apart from his accomplishments in the Dantata group, Alhaji Tajudeen has also been representing the interests of the group in several Nigerian companies including Electric Metre Company of Nigeria (EMCON) of which he is the chairman and others like, Virgin Nigeria Airways, Mentholatum Nigeria Limited, Cement Company of Northern Nigeria and NAL Bank Plc where he is a director. He was recently appointed chairman of the board of Starcomms, a leading CDMA telecommunications provider.


As Group Managing Director of Dantata Organization, he has gathered a wealth of experience for over a decade in various sectors of the economy, which include oil exploration, manufacturing, banking and finance, import and export, farming as well as merchandising and commodity trading.



As a government appointee, he held various positions including Chairman, Kano State Tourism Board and Chairman, Kano State Housing Corporation. He has attended various courses both in Nigeria and overseas, one amongst many is the Petroleum Technology and Operations Overview (1992), in Houston, Texas, USA.

Alhaji Dantata presently serves as the President for TAMIDAN Group Nigeria Ltd, the parent company for Dantata Foods & Allied Products Ltd (DFAP).

naptu2:
Part 8


Alhaji Sayyu Dantata

www.nairaland.com/attachments/660816_sayyu_jpgce9b156c26d7c674ccd176f3ed0e1aa4

Sayyu Dantata 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 Naira 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 has an annual turnover of N10 billion and ships about 50,000 tonnes of diesel a month. The company recently stunned the industry when it acquired Chevron Texaco’s downstream assets for 1 billion dollars (it was bidding against Femi Otedola’s Zennon Oil). The M.R.S group employs about 800 people.