According to assessments by Forbes and Bloomberg, Aliko Dangote has become the wealthiest businessman in Africa and the richest Black man in the world during the past ten years and counting. Numerous Africans, African Americans, and other people of color around the world have been inspired by his narrative.
Dangote’s net worth is $12.7 billion, according to Forbes, and $19 billion, according to Bloomberg. He mostly derives his income from Dangote Cement, one of Africa’s most popular and well-known brands. His cement firm operates in 10 nations around Africa and has a production capacity of 48.6 million metric tons annually.
In addition to operating a cement factory, Dangote also operates an oil refinery, a sugar factory, and a fertilizer and pesticide manufacturing facility. His refinery, which is currently being built, is anticipated to be among the biggest in the world and will assist in lowering Nigeria’s reliance on imported processed crude.
Additionally, he is involved in the production of automobiles through his company, Dangote Peugeot Automobiles Nigeria Limited (DPAN). Beginning with the Land Trek, 3008, 5008, and the new 508, the vehicles’ assembling began.
How did Dangote begin his path to being the richest Black person in the world and a successful businessman? Around 65 years ago, Dangote was born into a prosperous northern Nigerian trading family. Alhassan Dantata, Dangote’s great-grandfather, traded primarily groundnuts and kola nuts. However, Dantata was also one of the richest men in the British colonies in West Africa.
He revealed to Time Magazine at a world economic forum event that his great-grandfather traded kola nuts and was the richest man in West Africa at the time of his passing. “My father was a politician and businessman. My grandfather raised me. In my culture, it’s customary for grandparents to raise the first grandchild. I experienced a lot of love, which greatly boosted my confidence.
Despite coming from a wealthy family, Dangote forged his way into the business. He began looking for his own money when he was still in primary school, which was pretty early. He’ll sell sweets to raise money for his education. He also put in a lot of effort working for his uncle Sani Dangote, which helped him establish the groundwork for his business success.
“I recall that when I was in elementary school, I used to go out and buy cartons of candies and start selling them to start making money. Even then, I was quite interested in business,” he admitted.
He asked his uncle for a loan to start a firm not long after earning his degree in business studies and administration from Al-Azhar University in Egypt, one of the largest Islamic universities.
He eventually received a $3000 loan from his uncle to begin importing and trading agricultural goods in Nigeria. Sugar, rice, pasta, salt, cotton, millet, cocoa, textiles, and vegetable oil from Brazil and Thailand were among the commodities he dealt with.
His company took off right away, and three months later he paid back the debt from his uncle. He entered the cement business in 1973 by purchasing trucks and reselling them to others for profit.
He started selling rice, sugar, and other commodities after dumbing cement. He finally opened a factory and returned to the cement business. He went from having no market share in Nigeria to dominating the market by roughly 45% in the first year.
According to him, the nation is currently generating 42 million tons, of which 29 million tons belong to us. In addition to Nigeria, we have also been able to export our products to 17 other African nations. We’ll have 80 million tons of capacity by 2019.
His cement factory’s success encouraged him to begin producing some of the goods he had been importing or purchasing from third parties. He established a facility and began producing pasta, sugar, salt, flour, and other goods in 1997.
All of his businesses are currently run under the empire Dangote Group, of which he is the chairman. The company has about 30,000 employees in Nigeria and other countries in Africa. The following companies are part of the Dangote group: Dangote Flour Mills Plc, Dangote Cement Plc, and Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc.
Dangote Pasta Plant Limited and Dangote Agro Sacks Limited are a few others. Operations at Dangote Salt Plc’s ports Steel Production in Haulage Telecommunications Real Estate Dangote Foods Limited Petrochemicals, fertilizers, and oil refineries.
Given the necessary enabling environment, which is frequently lacking, African youth have the potential to succeed in the field of entrepreneurship and any endeavor, as demonstrated by Dangote’s rise to become one of the most influential and prosperous businesspeople in Africa and the world at large.
