Biographies of Succesful People

 

Alhaji Aliko Dangote was born on April 10, 1957 in Kano. His grandfather, the late Alhaji Sanusi Dantata provided him with a small capital to start his own business, as was the practice then. He thus started business in Kano in 1977 trading in commodities and building materials. Alhaji Aliko Dangote moved to Lagos in June 1977 and continued trading in cement and commodities. Encouraged by tremendous success and increase in business activities, he incorporated two companies in 1981. These and others that followed now make up the conglomerate known as Dangote Group.Aliko Dangote has become such a colossus in the Nigerian investment world. His sprawling business interests which spread across the West African Sub-region from the Republic of Benin, through Ghana to Cote d’Ivoire, puts in proper perspective his entrepreneurial skills, with textiles, foods and transportation as his strategic forte. The Kano born sugar merchant got his first break in 1977 at the age of 21 years. 1977 was the year he actually went into cement business.

Business career

Today, Dangote has his tentacles in almost every sphere of human activity and owns about six companies including Dangote Nigeria Limited, Dangote Textiles Limited, Dangote Holdings, Blue Star Limited, Dansa Foods, and recently the Dangote Flour Mills factory that was established in Kano.He started out under studying his Uncle, Sanusi Dantata before setting up his own business in the late 1970s with a loan from his uncle. Dangote moved from Kano to Lagos where he participated in the massive importation and sale of cement needed for the country’s development. Having cut his business teeth here and made his money, Dangote has never looked back till date. He directs a business that has diversified from its early concentration on commodity trading into banking, agriculture, manufacturing, textile and transportation.

Dangote controls 60% of sugar market in Nigeria today, given the heavy demand by Nigeria’s soft drink industry, breweries, and confectionary industries for sugar. Because of his enormous investment in the business and his transport haulage business, he can distribute his sugar faster, cheaper and at a uniform price nationwide which the competition cannot match. Dangote is reputed to have good investments even in foreign based sugar refineries that supply him.

Dangote also imports and sells rice, vegetable oil, and cement. He employs over 2000 Nigerians as his workforce in his various businesses. In the 1980s, Dangote decided to move from being just a successful commodity dealer to a more rounded entrepreneur with solid investments in finance and manufacturing.Indeed, Aliko Dangote’s well-known business empire has extended far and wide and it is now sweeping the continent of Africa like a typhoon. His foray into Africa easily makes him a merchant of repute who cannot be taken for granted. His investments span the entire length and breadth of the continent – Africa. Aliko Dangote is a shrewd businessman and a consummate entrepreneur. He has conquered many business sectors, bought over many faltering industries, revived many dying corporations and kept food on many family tables. His businesses continue to grow and none shows the slightest indication that it is under pressure.

Aliko Dangote, president of Dangote Group of Companies is a testimony to great success of private entrepreneurship in managing the Nigerian economy. From modest beginning in the late 1970s, he has today built a multi billion naira conglomerate. Dangote has many things going for him. The right family pedigrees, hard work, foresight and the resources to be a volume player.Born in Kano, reputed for its groundnut pyramids, to Mohammed Dangote, a business associate of Alhassan Dantata, and Hajiya Mariya Sanusi Dantata, Alhassan’s grand daughter. This rich business background provided the launching pad for Dangote. He started out understudying his uncle, Sanusi Dantata before setting up his own business in the late 1970s with a loan from his uncle. Dangote moved from Kano to Lagos where he participated in the massive importation and sale of cement needed for the country’s development. Having cut his business teeth here and made his seed money, Dangote has never looked back till date. From his Osborne Road office in Ikoyi, Lagos, he directs a business that has diversified from its early concentration on commodity trading into banking, agriculture manufacturing, textile and transportation.

Dangote made his name in commodity trading especially sugar importation into Nigeria which he admits he controls over 60 percent today. Given the heavy demand by Nigeria’s soft drink industry, breweries and confectionery industries for sugar, he makes a kill by doing volume business and gaining advantages to undercut competitors. Dispelling rumours of his cornering the market with the connivance of government support, he says it is an open market but because of his enormous investment in the business and his transport haulage business, he can distribute his sugar faster, cheaper and at a uniform prize nationwide which the competition cannot match. Dangote is reputed to have good investments even in foreign-based sugar refineries that supply him.His business interest spans the export and import business. He exports cashew nuts, cotton, cocoa, millet ad textile. His extensive network enables him to source these commodities not only in Nigeria but the entire west coast of Africa where he is increasingly becoming a visible player. He also exports fish. Interestingly, he started out importing fish but when the local market proved difficult and less profitable, he diverted his supplies to the export market.

Dangote also imports and sells rice, vegetable oil, and cement. He employs similar strategies in the distribution of these commodities as in the sugar business. In December 1996, Dangote says, in response to a mandate from government, he imported and sold so much rice that the local market crashed by almost 80 percent. Right from the 1980s, Dangote decided to move from being just a successful commodity dealer to a more rounded entrepreneur with solid investments in finance and manufacturing. his style was acquisition and buying into existing companies.He started out with Dangote General Textile Product which he acquired form its former owners thereby establishing control over the source of his trade. In 1993, he acquired controlling shares in the Lagos-based Nigerian Textile Mills. He invested enormous resources in re-capitalizing, refurbishing its machinery and restructuring its management. And within a few years, he turned it from a loss maker back to its days of good profits. Looking beyond just making and exporting textile materials, the Dangote Group is exploring opportunities to manufacture jeans materials for the export market. Even in Sugar, Dangote currently has a joint venture with Pakistanis to set up a refinery in Nigeria to locally make sugar to cap his years of sugar business. Dangote bought 40 percent shares of the Nigerian Salt Company to broaden his investment portfolio and has three directors on the company’s board to oversee his interest there. With this pep, National Salt is expected to become a strong contender for control of Nigeria’s salt market.

Aliko Alhaji Aliko Dangote is the Nigerian founder and president of Dangote Group. He is known to be one of the richest man in Africa, but he said “I think I have to be rated by Forbes magazine first before I can be [called] the richest man in Africa,” says Mr. Dangote modestly. “But, you know, I’m comfortable.” He ranked first in Nigeria in the Forbes 2008 list of the richest people in the world with a fortune estimated at 3.3 billion dollars.

Aliko Dangote is the ‘golden child’ of Nigerian business circles. The Dangote consortium spans across many sectors of the Nigerian economy

The Dangote Group provides , cements ,sugar, salt, flour , rice, spaghettis, textile etc,,,,,,,,,at competitive prices.

As a nonpartisan and detribalized businessperson, he is generous to different political parties, religious groups and cultural institutions. Apart from providing employment to elite graduates from different ethnic backgrounds, he minimizes the level of crime by engaging youths who are school leavers in the area of transportation, packaging, security amongst others.

It may not be a wild assumption to say that every Nigerian has heard of his name because of the impact of his business. His products are in most homes across the country. Those who may not use his products would have passed some of his trailers by the way. He is into export, import, manufacturing, real estate and philanthropy. All these are rolled together into what is known as the Dangote Group.

At the helm of its affairs as president and Chief Executive Officer is an unassuming man named Aliko Dangote. The focus of his investments is food, clothing and shelter.

The Dangote Group imports 400,000 metric tonnes of sugar annually which accounts for about 70 per cent of the total requirements of the country and is a major supplier of the product to the manufacturers of Coca Cola, Pepsi Cola and Seven-Up in Nigeria. It imports 200,000 metric tonnes of rice annually just as the company imports tonnes of cement and fertilizer and building materials.

Dangote Group also imports fish and owns three big fishing trawlers chartered for fishing with a 5,000 MT capacity.

The group exports cotton, cocoa, cashew nuts, sesame seed, ginger and gum Arabic to several countries.

The Dangote Group

The group today is involved in diverse forms of manufacturing with high turnover. Dangote textile and the Nigeria Textiles Mills Plc, which it acquired, produce over 120,000 meters of finished textiles daily. The group has a ginnery in Kankawa, Katsina State with a capacity of 30,000 MT of seeded cotton annually.

The sugar refinery at Apapa port, Lagos is the largest in Africa and in size the third largest in the world with an annual capacity of 700,000 tonnes of refined sugar annually. It also has another 100,000 tonne-capacity sugar mill at Hadeja in Jigawa State.Apart from having substantial investment in the National Salt Company of Nigeria at Ota, Ogun State, the group has salt factories at Apapa and Calabar, a polypropylene bagging factory which produces required bags for its products, over 600 trailers for efficient distribution network and goods meant for export can also efficiently be transported to the ports.A vehicle leasing unit with over 100 fully air-conditioned commuter buses, is also part of the Dangote Group. It is also into real estate with luxury flats and high rise complexes in Ikoyi, Victoria Island, Abuja and Kano. Dangote Foundation is the philanthropic arm of the group where yearly he spends millions for worthy causes such as contributions to educational and healthcare institutions, sinking of boreholes and giving of scholarships.

The Dangote Group has nationwide staff strength of 12,000 but on completion of on-going projects, it is expected to hit 22,000.

Alhaji Aliko Dangote’s business success may be influenced by various factors. He seems to be broad-minded. Unlike some people, his Personal Assistant is Yoruba while his Head of Corporate Affairs is a Christian from Delta State.

In this encounter, Dangote talks about his driving force in business, the factors that have kept him above his contemporaries in business, his $800 million cement factory at Obajana, Kogi State and the N14 million mega company, which he and some industrialists have set up. Perhaps above all, his patriotic stance is commendable: “If you give me today $5 billion, I will not invest any abroad, I will invest everything here in Nigeria. Let us put heads together and work.”

As a self-employed person, with minimum basic education, he proves that business success can be through determination, honesty and perseverance; and not necessarily by acquiring Harvard-Oxford certificates or First-Class academic qualification. His managerial skill must surely be the envy of economic professors. Instead of stashing his funds in foreign accounts, a common feature of fraudulent front and public office looters, Dangote invests wisely in the productive sector of the Nigerian economy.

To deny that Dangote does not have monopoly over some of the commodities in the Nigerian market is to deny the obvious. Recently he and other notable Nigerians announced their desire to float a private sector mega company with the name Transnational Corporation of Nigeria (TCN), which amongst other things may acquire government-owned refinery, operate strategic state-owned coys and pioneer status in Agriculture and IT.

He is the owner of the Dangote Group, which has operations in Nigeria and several other countries in Africa, including Benin, Cameroon, Ghana, South Africa and Zambia.[3] A wealthy supporter of erstwhile President Olusegun Obasanjo and the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Dangote controls much of Nigeria’s commodities trade through his corporate and political connections. With an estimated current net worth of around US$ 13.8 billion, he was ranked by Forbes as one of the richest African citizens[4] and richest person of African descent in the world toppling Mohammed Al Amoudi ($12.3 billion) and Oprah Winfrey ($2.7 billion.)[5]
The Dangote Group, originally a small trading firm founded in 1977, is now a multi-trillion naira conglomerate with operations in Benin, Ghana, Nigeria, 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.

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 drives during Obasanjo’s second term.[citation needed]

On 23 May 2010, England’s Daily Mirror newspaper reported that Dangote was interested in buying a 16 percent stake in Premiership side Arsenal belonging to Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith.[6] Dangote later denied these rumours.

The Dangote Group is currently the largest industrial conglomerate in West Africa and one of the largest in Africa. It generated revenue in excess of US$1.25 billion 2005. The group is one of the leading diversified business conglomerates in sub-Saharan Africa. It employs in excess of 11,000 people.The Dangote Group is a diversified conglomerate, headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria, with interests across a range of sectors in Africa. Current interests include cement, sugar, flour, salt, pasta, beverages and real estate, with new projects in development in the oil and Natural gas, telecommunications, fertilizer[1] and steel. The Group focuses on provision of local, value-added products and services that meet the needs of the African population. Dangote Cement, the largest cement production company in Africa, with a market capitalization of almost US$14 billion on the Nigeria Stock Exchange, has subsidiaries in Benin, Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa and Zambia.[2] In December 2010, the group signed an agreement with the Government of Zambia to construct a US$400 million cement plant in Zambia. Once completed in June 2013, as anticipated, the new plant is expected to have an annual output of 1.5 metric tonnes of cement.

Alhaji Aliko Dangote emerged the 334th richest man in the world based on the recently released 2008 Forbes Magazine list of richest men in the world, making him the richest black person. A Nigerian, he hit the jackpot when his sugar-production company listed on the Nigerian stock exchange last year.Meanwhile, proposed initial public offerings of his flour and cement companies have stalled. Began career as trader at 21 with loan from his uncle; built his Dangote Group into conglomerate with interests in sugar, flour milling, salt processing, cement manufacturing, textiles, real estate, haulage and oil and gas. Closely linked to Nigeria’s former president Olusegun Obasanjo. His wealth is estimated at $3.3 billion.The other black man on the list is Patrice Mosepe (#503) from South Africa with a net worth of $2.4 billion.

Subsidiary Companies

The Dangote Group includes the following subsidiaries, among others:

ALCO International Limited

Dangote Nigeria Limited

Dangote Transport Limited

Dangote Cement Plc. – Listed on Nigeria Stock Exchange[4]

National Salt Company of Nigeria Plc. – Listed on Nigeria Stock Exchange

Dangote Flour Mills Plc. – Listed on Nigeria Stock Exchange

Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc. – Listed on Nigeria Stock Exchange[5]

Dangote Oil & Gas Industries International

Dangote Textiles Limited

Dangote Holdings Limited

Blue Star Limited

Dansa Foods Limited

Dansa Food Processing Limited

Dancom Technologies

GreenView International Company Limited – Has invested US$28+ million in cement factory in Ghana.

Sephaku Cement Limited – Dangote Group has 64% shareholding in this South African cement company.

Alheri Engineering Limited

Kura Holdings Limited