DANGOTE, Alhaji (Dr.) Aliko

Born 10 April, 1957
in

Kano State

Alhaji

DANGOTE,

Aliko

Aliko Dangote, GCON (born April 10, 1957) is a Nigerian business magnate, investor, and owner of the Dangote Group, which has interests in commodities in Nigeria and other African countries. Dangote was born into a wealthy Muslim family of Hausa ethnic extraction in Kano, Nigeria’s northwest region. His great grandfather, Alhaji Alhassan Dantata, was the richest African up to his death in 1955. But Dangote knew the virtues of being self-made and entrepreneurship so early in life. As an infant in basic school at the Sheikh Ali Kumasi Madrasa in Kano, he found time to sell cartons of candy. The young Aliko later studied at Capital High School, also in Kano and at Al-Azhar University, Cairo where he earned first degree in Business Studies and Administration. At age 20 in 1977, Dangote established a small trading firm. He thereafter relocated to Lagos and founded the now renowned Dangote Group in 1981, which has evolved into a multi-trillion-Naira conglomerate. The largest indigenous conglomerate in sub-Saharan Africa, Dangote Group employs more than 30,000 people. It owns and operates over 18 subsidiaries across 10 African countries, including Nigeria, Benin Republic, Ghana, Togo, South Africa and Zambia. Dangote Group has expanded to cover cement manufacturing, sugar refining, salt refining and seasonings, flour and semolina, pasta processing, packaging materials, property management, technology, port operations, food and beverages, transportation, refinery and petrochemicals, fertiliser, agriculture, infrastructure, automotive and gas pipelines. Aliko Dangote owns almost 88% of publicly-traded Dangote Cement through a holding company. Dangote Cement, Africa’s largest cement producer, produces 44 million metric tons annually and plans to increase its output by 33% by 2020. Dangote runs the largest sugar refinery in Africa and the third largest in the world producing 800,000 tonnes of sugar annually. His Group is a major foreign exchange earner for Nigeria as it exports cotton, cashew nuts, cocoa, sesame seeds and ginger to several countries. Dangote has diversified into telecommunications and his company has started building 14,000 kilometres of fibre optic cables to supply the whole of Nigeria. As far back as 2009, Dangote was honoured as the leading provider of employment in the Nigerian construction industry. “Nothing is going to help Nigeria like Nigerians bringing back their money,” he said in an interview. “If you give me $5 billion today, I will invest everything here in Nigeria. Let us put our heads together and work.” Dangote established the Aliko Dangote Foundation to promote his passion for philanthropy. The Foundation is determined to reduce the number of lives lost to malnutrition and disease; using investment in health, education and economic empowerment to help people out of poverty. Dangote has stayed out of the perilous political space, but he is noted to have provided financial support for some political campaigns. A self-confessed fan of the English Premiership side Arsenal, Dangote had shown interest in investing in the club. That position drew flaks from some football enthusiasts who would have preferred he invests in developing the game in Nigeria. In 2011, he was conferred with Nigeria’s second highest national honour, the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON) by President Goodluck Jonathan. In 2013, Dangote and six other prominent Nigerians were conferred with honorary citizenship of Arkansas State by Governor Mike Beebe who also proclaimed May 30 of every year as Nigeria Day in the United States. The other prominent Nigerians are: Chief Ms. Temditope Ajayi, the President and CEO of Nigerian-American Agricultural Empowerment Programme; Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, the then Governor of Kano State, Nigeria; Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, at the time Nigeria’s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development; Prof. Tajudeen Gbadamosi, a former lecturer of University of Lagos; Prof. Ade Adefuye, the then Nigerian Ambassador to the United States; and Prof. Julius Okojie, at that time Executive Secretary of the National Universities Commission. In 2014, the Nigerian government said Dangote had donated N150 million (then about US$750,000) to halt the spread of Ebola. Dangote was named as the Forbes Africa Person of the Year 2014. The other nominees were South Africa's Public Protector, Thuli Madonsela, Nigerian author, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Director-General of the Securities and Exchange Commission, (SEC), Arunma Oteh, and President of the African Development Bank and Donald Kaberuka. In 2015, Dangote won the Clinton Global Citizen Award and in 2017, Dangote Group generated revenue in excess of US$4.1 billion. As of September 2018, Forbes put Dangote’s real time net worth at US$12.2 billion, rating him No 1 richest human in Africa, a position he attained in 2014 when he surpassed Saudi-Ethiopian billionaire Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi by over $2.6 billion to become the world's richest person of African descent. At that time, Dangote was the 23rd richest person in the world. But by September 2018, he had dropped to 100th billionaire in the world.
Gender: Male
Marital Status
  • Divorced
Name of Spouse Maria AD Muhammad Rufai (divorced)
State of Origin: Kano State
Father's Name Mohammed Dangote
Father's Status Deceased
Mother's Name Hajia. Mariya Sanusi Dantata
Mother's Status N/A
Number of Male Children 1
Number of Female Children 3

1. Halima Bello
2. Mariya Dangote
3. Fatima Abubakar
4. Abdulrahman Fasasi

Profession Businessman , Industrialist , Philanthropist
Working Experience - Business Associate, Alhassan Dantata & Sons, 1970-77; CEO, Dansa Foods Ltd., since 1977; MD/CEO. Dangote Group of Companies, incorporating Dangote Nigeria Ltd.,Dangote Textile Mills Ltd; Dangote Holdings, Blue-Star Shipping Co. Ltd; Blue-Start Investment, U.K.; Blue-Star Services Co., Ltd; Greenview International Co., Ghana; Greenview Development Co., Ltd; Alsan Insurance Brokers Ltd.; Dangote Ginnery Ltd; Dangote Agro-Sacks Ltd; Head, panel on Ports decongestion in 2001; Chairman, Executive Jets Services; Salamed Ventures Ltd., Barewa Foods Co. Ltd., Dangote Chemical Co. Ltd; Kogi Investment Co. Ltd; Dangote Farm Ltd; Masada Agric Machinery Co. Ltd; Kura Holdings Ltd; Chairman, Board of Directors of: Obajana Cement Pic, Obajana, Kogi State; Savannah Sugar Company Ltd., Numan, Adamawa State; Benue Cement PIc, Gboko, Benue State.

PRESENT APPOINTMENT: CEO, Dangote Group

MEMBERSHIP OF PROFESSIONAL BODIES:

– Nigerian-British Chamber of Commerce;
– Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA);
– Kano Chapter of Commerce and Industry;
– Manufacturers Association of Nigeria.

SCHOOLS ATTENDED: Capital High School, Kano, Kano State; Al-azhar University, Cairo, Egypt
Tertiary
No

AWARDS AND HONOURS:

– One of the 20 most outstanding CEOs in Corporate Nigeria, Vanguard Annual Award for Managerial excellence, 2002;

– Officer of the Order of the Niger (OON);

– npm: Federal Government of Nigeria, 1998;

– Zik Prize for Professional Leadership, 1998;

– International Honorary Award of the Ahmadu Bello, by Arewa Research and Publication, 1999;

– Best Indigenous Shipper in Nigeria, 2000;

– Cross River Roll of Honours Award, best Entrepreneur and Philanthropist of the year, by Governor Donald Duke, Cross River State, 2002;

– First Ever Fellowship Award, by Lagos State Polytechnic, 2002;

– Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON), 2005;

– Most Respected C.E.O. of the Year, by Price Water House Coopers/ BusinessDay, 2005;

– Entrepreneur of the Year, Thisday Awards, 2006;

– Best CEO of the Year, 11th Annual Thisday Awards;

– Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger, (GCON), 2011.

INTERNATIONAL/FOREIGN DECORATIONS:

1. Honorary Citizenship of Arkansas
2. Forbes Africa Person of the Year 2014

HONOURARY DEGREES AND AWARDING INSTITUTIONS:

1. Honorary degree of Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) by the University of Ibadan (UI);
2. Honorary doctorate degree of business (Hon. D.B) by the Lagos State University;
3. Honorary Doctorate Degree, Federal University of Technology, Akure, October 2002;
4. Doctors of Science in Business Management (D.Sc. Honoris Causa), by University of Calabar, Cross River State, 2003.

Aliko Dangote is the richest man in Africa.

NOTABLE QUOTES:

1. “I enjoy myself a lot but I derive more joy in working. I believe in hard work and one of my business success secrets is hard work. It’s hard to see a youth that will go to bed by 2am and wake up by 5am. I don’t rest until I achieve something.”
2. “If you don’t have ambition, you shouldn’t be alive”.
3. “Every morning when I wake up, I make up my mind to solve as many problems, before retiring home.”
4. “I built a conglomerate and emerged the richest black man in the world in 2008 but it didn’t happen overnight. It took me thirty years to get to where I am today. Youths of today aspire to be like me but they want to achieve it overnight. It’s not going to work. To build a successful business, you must start small and dream big. In the journey of entrepreneurship, tenacity of purpose is supreme.”

OFFICIAL ADDRESS:

Union Marble House
1 Alfred Rewane Road,
PMB 40032, Falomo Ikoyi,
Lagos, Nigeria.

TELEPHONE NUMBERS: +234-1-448-0815, +234-1-448-0816
Alive
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