Aliko Dangote

Aliko Dangote (born 10 April 1957) is a Nigerian businessman and industrialist. He is best known as the founder, chairman, and CEO of the Dangote Group, the largest industrial conglomerate in West Africa. The Bloomberg Billionaires Index estimated his net worth at $16.1 billion in November 2023, making him the richest person in Africa, the world's richest black person, and the world's 107th richest person overall. Early life Dangote was born into a wealthy Hausa Muslim family on 10 April 1957 in Kano, which was then part of British Nigeria. His mother, Mariya Sanusi Dantata, was the daughter of businessman Sanusi Dantata. His father, Mohammed Dangote, was a business associate of Dantata. Through his mother, he is the great-grandson of Alhassan Dantata, the richest person in West Africa at the time of his death in 1955. Dangote's brother, Sani (1959/60–2021), was also a businessman. Dangote was educated at the Sheikh Ali Kumasi Madrasa, followed by Capital High School in Kano. In 1978, he graduated from the Government College, Birnin Kudu. He received a bachelor's degree in business studies and administration from Al-Azhar University in Cairo. Business career The Dangote Group was established as a small trading firm in 1977, the same year Dangote relocated to Lagos to expand the company. Dangote received a ₦500,000 loan from his uncle to begin trading in commodities, including bagged cement as well as agricultural goods like rice and sugar. In the 1990s, he approached the Central Bank of Nigeria with the idea that it would be less expensive for the bank to allow his transport company to manage their fleet of staff buses, a proposal that was also approved.