Alhaji Aliko Dangote was born on 10 April 1957, in Kano, Nigeria, a son of a relatively wealthy muslim family but who developed his own ideas for a business. Forbes magazine ranks Aliko as the wealthiest person in Nigeria and Africa, and the 67th richest person in the world in 2015.
So just how rich is Aliko Dangote? Forbes estimates that Aliko has a net worth estimated at over $21.6 billion, most of his wealth having been earned from his business trading commodities from the late 1970s.
Aliko Dangote Net Worth $21.6 Billion
Aliko Dangote was fascinated by business from an early age, even buying candy in bulk and then selling it in the school yard. He was educated at Capital High School, Kano, and subsequently graduated with a degree in business from Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt, and then returned to Nigeria to start a his own business with a loan from his uncle.
Aliko founded the Dangote Group in 1977 as a trading company, and his net worth began to build.. The conglomerate has now grown into a multi-billion dollar concern, with operations in Benin, Ghana and Togo as well as Nigeria, covering food processing, cement manufacturing, and freight. In particular the Group now dominates the sugar market in Nigeria, so is the major supplier to the country’s soft drink companies, breweries, and confectioners. Overall the Dangote Group is the largest industrial group in Nigeria. Aliko Dangote’s net worth has grown commensurately with the expansion and success of the Group.
In expanding his interests, Aliko Dangote took over management of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s transport in the 1990s. In 2012, Dangote leased land from Lagos Port Authority, on which he built facilities for his flour company.
Today, Dangote Group has the largest sugar refinery in Africa, and third largest in the world, producing 800,000 tonnes of sugar annually. It owns salt factories and flour mills and is a major producer of rice, fish, pasta, cement and fertiliser. The company exports cotton, cashew nuts, cocoa, sesame seed and ginger to several countries. It also has major investments in real estate, banking, transport, textiles and oil and gas. Dangote has diversified into telecommunications, and built 14,000 kilometres of fibre optic cables to supply the whole of Nigeria.
Currently Aliko Dangote is planning to build an oil refinery in Nigeria, because the country is a major oil supplier but does not have a refinery.
As a result of all his business activities, Dangote was honoured in January 2009 as the leading provider of employment in the Nigerian construction industry The Group now employs over 11,000 people and is the largest industrial conglomerate in West Africa.In 2011, Dangote was awarded Nigeria’s second highest honour, the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger, and in 2014Dangote was named as the Forbes Africa Person of the Year.
In his personal life, Aliko Dangote has been married officially three or four times, and is reputed to have fathered 15 children. In 2014, the Nigerian government said Dangote had donated 150 million Naira (US$1 million) to halt the spread of ebola.
