Aliko Dangote facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Aliko Dangote
GCON
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Dangote in 2014
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| Born |
Aliko Mohammad Dangote
10 April 1957 Kano, Nigeria
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| Alma mater | Al-Azhar University (BSc) |
| Occupation | Businessman |
| Years active | 1977–present |
| Title | Founder of Dangote Group |
| Spouse(s) |
Zainab Dangote
(m. 1977, divorced)Mariya Muhammad Rufai
(divorced) |
| Children | 4 |
| Relatives | Alhassan Dantata (great-grandfather) Sani Dangote (brother) |
| Awards | Full list |
Aliko Mohammad Dangote GCON (born April 10, 1957) is a famous businessman from Nigeria. He is well-known for leading the Dangote Group and the Dangote Refinery. In 2011, the President of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan, asked him to join a special team that helped manage the country's economy. He is considered the richest black person in the world. In March 2025, the magazine Forbes estimated his wealth to be around $23.8 billion.
In 1977, Dangote started his first company, the Dangote Group. It was a small business that traded goods like sugar, salt, and other food products. By 1981, he had started two more companies, Dangote Nigeria Limited and Blue Star Services. These companies imported items such as rice, steel, and aluminum. Because there was a high demand for cement, Dangote later created Dangote Cement. This company became very successful, even though it competed with a large French company called Lafarge. As of 2023, Dangote Cement had earned about $3.7 billion. His company, Dangote Sugar Refinery, is also one of the biggest sugar producers in Nigeria and Africa.
Dangote is a public figure in Africa because of his business and his involvement in important discussions. He has a big impact on the Economy of Nigeria. In 2011, he received a high honor called the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger from President Goodluck Jonathan. In 2014, Time magazine included him in their list of the 100 most influential people in the world.
Contents
Early Life and Family
Aliko Mohammad Dangote was born on April 10, 1957, in Kano, Nigeria. His maternal grandfather, Sanusi Dantata, gave him the name "Aliko," which means "the victorious one who defends humanity."
Family Background
Dangote comes from a well-known Nigerian family of Hausa descent. He was raised as a Muslim. He went to a Madrasa for his early education and then attended a public school.
His mother, Mariya Dantata, came from a wealthy family and was a businesswoman and a kind helper to others. His father, Mohammed Dangote, also owned a transport company.
Aliko had three siblings. His brother, Sani Dangote, was a businessman who passed away. His brother Bello died in a plane crash in 1996. His brother Garba passed away in 2013.
Dangote's family members were very successful in business. His maternal great-grandfather, Alhassan Dantata, was the richest person in West Africa until he passed away in 1955. Alhassan Dantata used to import Kola nuts from Ghana and export groundnuts to other countries. When Dangote's father died in 1965, Aliko gave his inheritance to charity. He looks up to his maternal grandfather, Sanusi, and his maternal uncle, Usman Amaka Dantata, as important father figures in his life.
Education and Personal Life
Dangote attended Sheikh Ali Kumasi Madrasa for primary school. He then went to Capital High School in Kano. In 1978, he finished his secondary education at the Government College, Birnin Kudu.
After high school, he moved to Egypt to study business. He earned a bachelor's degree in business studies and administration from Al-Azhar University in Cairo. After finishing his studies, he returned to Lagos, Nigeria, to start his own businesses.
Dangote has four children: three daughters and an adopted son named Abdulrahman. He married his first wife, Zainab, in 1977 when he was twenty years old. His parents chose her for him, following local customs. They had two daughters, Maria and Halima. They later divorced. He then married Mariya Muhammad Rufai, and they had a daughter named Fatima. This marriage ended in 2017.
Business Ventures
Dangote started his first business with a loan of $3,000 from his uncle. He began by trading food products. He has said that he learned about business from selling boiled sugar sweets to his classmates when he was only eight years old, and he would save the money he earned.
In the mid-to-late 1970s, he got a license from the Nigerian government to import goods. He added cement to his business during a time when Nigeria needed a lot of cement for building projects. Many ships carrying cement were stuck at Lagos harbor, and some even sank. During this time, Dangote bought trucks and started a cargo transportation business, which he also used to carry his own cement.
In 1977, Dangote's company made only pasta, salt, sugar, and flour. By 1981, he expanded his company into a large group of businesses, known as a conglomerate. This group traded in textiles, sugar, flour, salt, oil and gas, and real estate.
He lived in Atlanta, Georgia, for a while before returning to Nigeria in 1998 to start his cement business. His sugar refinery in Lagos became the second largest in the world. The Dangote Group is now considered one of the biggest conglomerates in Africa.
In 2000, after his friend Olusegun Obasanjo became president, the Nigerian government sold off Benue Cement Company (BBC), which was a state-owned company. This allowed Dangote to grow his cement business even more. His Obajana cement plant in Kogi State became the largest cement plant in Sub-Saharan Africa. In 2010, the group bought a part of South Africa's Sephaku Cement.
In July 2012, Dangote was allowed to lease an unused piece of land at the Apapa Port Complex from the Nigerian Ports Authority. In February 2022, he announced that a Peugeot car assembly plant in Nigeria was finished. This was part of his partnership with Stellantis, the company that makes Peugeot cars. Dangote also became the owner of the Dangote Refinery, which is the largest oil refinery in Africa. It officially opened in 2023.
Influence and Activities
Dangote's business and charity work reach many African countries, including Benin, Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, and Togo.
In Nigeria
Dangote was a strong supporter of his friend President Olusegun Obasanjo when he ran for re-election in 2003. He gave a large amount of money to the campaign. In 2011, President Goodluck Jonathan asked Dangote to be a member of his Economic Management Team.
Dangote was also named an adviser for President Muhammadu Buhari's re-election campaign in 2019. In 2014, Dangote donated ₦150 million to help fight the Ebola outbreak in Nigeria. In 2020, he gave ₦200 million to help with the fight against the COVID-19 Pandemic.
The Dangote Refinery was expected to help lower fuel prices in Nigeria. However, some people are concerned about it becoming a monopoly, which means it could control the entire fuel supply. This could lead to higher prices and less competition.
Dangote's companies are very dominant in Nigeria's cement and sugar industries. Some competitors find it hard to compete against his large resources and the advantages he gets from the government.
In Other African Countries
Dangote's business also operates in the Benin Republic, where he has invested in his cement business. His company, Dangote Cement, has a cement plant there.
In Ghana, Dangote has also set up a cement plant. He has supported the import of cement and other goods into Ghana.
Recognitions and Awards
In 2011, Dangote was part of President Jonathan's economic management team. In November of that same year, he received the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger, which is the second-highest honor in Nigeria. He was the first person who was not a government official to receive this special award.
Dangote is also known for his charity work. Through his foundation, the Dangote Foundation, he has helped improve social and education sectors in Nigeria. For example, in 2011, he reportedly gave $60 to each person who was displaced because of violence during the 2011 Nigerian presidential election.
Dangote has five grandchildren. In 2012, he took his family to Walt Disney World.
Wealth and Influence
Dangote became the first billionaire in Nigeria in 2007. In 2012, The Guardian newspaper wrote that he was the richest man in Africa and the richest black man in the world. According to the Nigerian newspaper Vanguard, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index reported that Dangote's wealth grew by $9.2 billion in 2013.
In April 2014, Time magazine included him in their list of the 100 most influential people in the world. In 2015, Bloomberg listed Dangote among the "50 Most Influential Individuals in the World." He also received the Guardian Man of the Year award and was named one of the top 100 most influential Africans by New African magazine.
In September 2016, the United States Chamber of Commerce named Dangote as co-chair of the US-Africa Business Center. In August 2022, President Buhari appointed him as the Chairman of the Nigeria End Malaria Council.
Awards and Honors
- In 2011, Dangote received Nigeria's second-highest honor, the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger, from President Goodluck Jonathan.
- He received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Nigeria Employers Consultative Association in 2021 and again in 2023.
- In 2011, he was the first Nigerian to be featured on Forbes World's Billionaires list.
- He won the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2012.
- He received the Sabistation Business Owners Awards in 2024.
- In 2024, he was given the National Order of the Lion by President Macky Sall.
- In 2022, he received the Order of Merit of Niger award from President Mohamed Bazoum.
- He was named Economic Confidential's CEO of the year in 2024.
- In 2020, Dangote's group won the CNN commercial's award.
Dangote has worked with the Gates Foundation on public health issues. In August 2014, he donated 150 million naira to help the Nigerian government treat and prevent Ebola. In May 2016, he promised $10 million to help Nigerians affected by the Boko Haram insurgency. In March 2020, he donated 200 million naira to help fight the spread of COVID-19 in Nigeria.
Dangote is a fan of the English football team Arsenal F.C.. In 2020, he made a donation to Nigeria's ministry of sports to help renovate the Moshood Abiola National Stadium in Abuja.
See also
In Spanish: Aliko Dangote para niños
