Dangote: The Richest Black Man in Africa, Biography, Business and Net Worth

Our employees are our greatest asset, and I am delighted to honor the commitment, dedication, and longstanding colleagues who daily uphold our principles, demonstrate our vision and sustain our success as an organization.

-       Aliko Dangote

Aliko Dangote is a renowned business mogul and the richest man in Africa. Though ‘Dangote’ is a household company that has been in existence long ago, Aliko has proved beyond doubts that a business is not only about a popular brand, but a goal-oriented leader and a committed team is also important. Over the years, Dangote has been able to grow his fortune from the level of borrowing some money from his uncle to the level it is now.  He is currently the richest black man in Africa with a net worth of $8.2B (as of May 27, 2020).

Early Life & education

Aliko Dangote was born on 10^th April 1957 into a wealthy family. A Muslim-Hausa by ethnicity, Dangote was privileged to live an upper-class life as a relative and great-grandson of Alhassan Dantata who was formerly the richest West African in the 1950s, and grandson of Sanusi Dantata, also formerly the richest man in Kano.

After the death of his father in 1965, Dangote lived with his grandfather, Dantata. Spending a good part of his childhood with this grandfather contributed to Dangote’s keen interest in business. In his words, “I 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 had his primary education at Sheikh Ali Kumasi Madrasa school, where he began his mini business of selling sweets as a child. He got his secondary education at the Capital High School, Kano, and moved on to Al-Azhar University, Cairo to obtain a bachelor’s degree in business studies and administration.

Building The Business

Though from a wealthy family, to excel in life and business Dangote still had to be deliberate about his business choices and decisions. At 21, he borrowed $3,000 from his uncle to import and sell soft commodities which included rice from Thailand and sugar from Brazil. He got the commodities at wholesale prices from the manufacturers and resold them in small quantities to consumers in the local markets at a good cost price range. The business was so profitable that Dangote stated that he was making a $10,000 daily net profit, and within three months of running his business, he was able to pay back the $3,000 loan he took and has run successful operations since then, to date.

After 20 years of the importation business, Dangote realized that he could save more money if he had a plant to produce the same commodities he imported—sugar, salt, pasta, and flour. He already had his cement company running which also brought in good annual returns. By 2005, Dangote had enough funds to construct his own multimillion-dollar manufacturing plant. He got $479 million loans from International Finance Corporation, and the rest $319 million came from his personal savings.

One of the reasons why Dangote has grown so much since inception is the fact that Dangote reinvests a majority of his profits back into his businesses, thereby, yielding even more returns.  In an interview with Al Jazeera news, he stated that “we are not like other Africans who keep most of their money in the bank. We fully invest whatever we have and we keep on investing.”

Having a keen eye for better business opportunities, though Dangote didn’t make his wealth from Oil and Gas, he has still shown interest in that sector. In 2007, he purchased an oil refinery in Lagos which likely to run at full capacity by 2020. The refinery is expected to produce about 650,000 barrels of oil per day. The refinery is sure to take his business to the next level, however, it also stands as an opportunity for Nigeria to have a home-base refinery, thereby, cutting off dependence on international oil and gas suppliers. As he once stated, “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.”

Dangote Group

The Dangote Group is a multi-trillion-naira conglomerate which was established in 1977. At its inception, it was a small company that traded soft commodities, today, it has expanded its operations beyond the shores of Nigeria including Ghana, Benin Republic, and Togo.

Dangote Group of companies is a collection of many industries under Dangote which consist of consumer goods/food processing, manufacturing, oil, and gas. The Dangote cement has stood out to be the most yielding of the Dangote group, producing about 80% of the conglomerate revenue. Dangote cement produces about 44 million metric tons’ worth of cement yearly and plans to increase output by 33% in 2020.

The Dangote Group of companies is officially made up of Dangote Cement, Dangote Flour, and Dangote Sugar refinery which is the third refinery in the world, and a major supplier of sugar to breweries, and soft drink companies within and outside Nigeria. The Dangote Group make up a quarter of the Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE) market capitalization.

In recent times, the Dangote conglomerate has expanded into new segments of business including real estate, telecommunications, and steel manufacturing. It is so far, the largest conglomerate in W/Africa.

Dangote’s business story may not be the common ‘rags to riches’ story, but it sure tells of a business-minded young man, who was determined to grow his own business regardless of his family’s fortunes. As most people would, he took advantage of his privileges and built a business empire with it.