Aliko Dangote is a Nigerian tycoon with a net worth of $22 billion in 2022. He is one of the wealthiest men living south of the equator. He is one of the world's richest men and the most wealthy Nigerian gentleman.
In the business world, he is the wealthiest African gentleman on the planet. In Nigeria, he is known as the King of Commodities.
Aliko Dangote is one of the world's wealthiest people. Aliko Dangote made a fortune in the commodities industry, including everything from cement to oil.
Aliko Dangote Earnings and Networth
Full Name - Aliko Dangote
Date of Birth - 10 April 1957
Age - 65 years old
Profession - Businessman
Height - 1.67m (5 ft 6)
Nationality - Nigerian
Source of wealth - Dangote Cement and enterprises
Annual Salary - $1 Billion +
Net worth - $22 Billion
Last updated - December 2022
Early life and Biography of Aliko Dangote
Aliko Dangote was born on 10 April 1957 in Kano State, Nigeria. His ancestors are from a Muslim tribe and are business owners. His grandfather, Sanusi Dantata, of Aliko Dangote, once held the title of richest Nigerian in the world.
Dangote, who spent much of his childhood living with his grandfather, developed an early interest in the business. He remembered going to buy cartons of sweets [sugar boxes] in elementary school and then selling them to make money.
The father of Aliko Dangote served as a long-time director for Shell Oil in Nigeria. Additionally, he was among the wealthiest Nigerians in the entire world.
He became wealthy by selling goods like rice and oats. After his father passed away in 1965, Dantata took over as Dangote's guardian. Dangote, who spent much of his childhood living with his grandfather, developed an early interest in the business.
Aliko Dangote carried on their legacy by becoming the wealthiest Nigerian and the richest man in Africa.
So even back then, I was fascinated by business. At age 21, Dangote received his degree from Al-Azhar University in Egypt, regarded as one of Islam's most esteemed institutions. The aspiring businessman continued his business education there.
Aliko Dangote Career and Earnings
In 1977, after earning his college diploma, Dangote persuaded his uncle to give him a $3,000 loan so he could launch a business. Thanks to the loan's funds, he could import soft goods from international vendors at wholesale prices.
Brazilian sugar and Thai rice were two of his main imports. He then marked them up profitably and sold those goods in modest quantities to residents of his village.
The business was immediately profitable and became a cash cow. Dangote asserts in an interview with Forbes that on his best days, he made a $10,000 daily net profit. As a result, he could pay back his uncle in just three months.
Dangote built a plant producing pasta, sugar, salt, and flour he had been importing and selling for the previous 20 years. This is after realizing that serving as a middleman was extremely expensive.
At about the same time, a state-owned cement company was given to Dangote. Additionally, Dangote owns the third-largest sugar refinery in the world.
The Dangote Cement Group announced quarterly sales of 332.7 billion Nigerian nairas ($808.5 million) in 2021. Dangote Cement, of which Dangote owns 85%, accounts for most of the conglomerate's revenue.
Since then, he has divided his manufacturing operations into three publicly traded companies: Dangote Cement PLC, Dangote Sugar Refinery PLC, and National Salt Company of Nigeria PLC.
Dangote Cement, which operates in 10 African nations and produces 45.6 million metric tons of cement annually, is the primary source of Dangote's wealth.
One of the reasons the business expanded greatly since its inception is that Dangote always invested most of his profits back into his companies.
Aliko Dangote stated that the Dangote Group isn't doing like other Africans who save their money in the bank in an interview with Al Jazeera News. We do not maintain a bank account. Instead, we fully invest everything we have and continue to support (sic).
Dangote took a different path than many wealthy Nigerians who made their fortune in the oil industry. Still, he has since entered the oil and gas industry. Dangote is building a sizable oil refinery in Lagos that will begin operations in late 2021 to use some of its cash reserves.
If successful, Nigeria's reliance on foreign oil and gas suppliers could be significantly reduced, and the $7 billion in fuel imports every year could be stopped.
The $15 billion Nigerian refinery, expected to produce 650,000 barrels of oil per day, is the country's largest industrial project. Aliko Dangote also has a sizable portfolio of reality shows.
The total price of the actual portfolio is close to $4 billion. The primary products of Dangote's businesses are sugar, oil, and cement.
Awards and Philanthropy
Leading philanthropist Aliko Dangote established his private charitable foundation in 1994. The Aliko Dangote Foundation (ADF) is committed to improving people's lives throughout Africa by funding health, education, and economic empowerment initiatives.
Currently, the foundation is sub-Saharan Africa's most important private foundation. Notably, Dangote's Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation started working together in 2013 to combat polio and improve countrywide immunization practices.
Nigeria was the last country on the African continent to receive an official certification that it was free of wild polio in August 2020.
