Nigerian billionaire businessman, Aliko Dangote is 59 years old today.
Born on April 10, 1957, Aliko owns majority stake in the Dangote Group, which has interests in commodities. The company operates in Nigeria and other African countries, including Benin, Cameroon, Ghana, South Africa, Togo, Tanzania, and Zambia. As of 2015, he had an estimated net worth of US$18.6 billion.
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Dangote is ranked by Forbes magazine as the 67th richest person in the world and the richest in Africa; he peaked on the list as the 23rd richest person in the world in 2014. He surpassed Saudi-Ethiopian billionaire Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi in 2013 by over $2.6 billion to become the world’s richest person of African descent.
He hails from a very prominent business family. He is the great grand son of Alhaji Alhassan Dantata, the richest African at the time of his death in 1955. Aliko Dangote, an ethnic Muslim Hausa from Kano State, was born into a wealthy Muslim family. Dangote once said, ‘I can remember when I was in primary school, I would go and buy cartons of sweets [sugar boxes] and I would start selling them just to make money. I was so interested in business, even at that time.’
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The Dangote Group was established as a small trading firm in 1977 and today, it is a multi-trillion naira conglomerate, which has expanded to cover food processing, cement manufacturing, and freight. The Dangote Group also dominates the sugar market in Nigeria and is a major supplier to the country’s soft drink companies, breweries, and confectioners.
by hotdropz