# Aliko Dangote

Aliko Dangote GCON (born 10 April 1957) is a Nigerian businessman known for his key roles in Dangote Group and Refinery. In 2011, he was appointed as member of the economic management team by President Goodluck Jonathan. Dangote is the wealthiest black person in the world; as of March 2025, Forbes estimates his net worth to be US$23.8 billion.
Born to a wealthy family in Kano, Kano State, Nigeria, Dangote is from an Hausa descent. His father was a businessman. He was educated in Kano until his university education, when he left Nigerian for Egypt. He graduated from Al-Azhar University in Cairo before returning to Lagos to pursue business ventures.
In 1977, Dangote founded the Dangote Group, a small company, which was first a trading enterprise, importing sugar and food materials in Nigeria. In 1981, he founded Dangote Nigeria Limited and Blue Star Services; both imports commodities including rice and bulk materials: steel and aluminium products inclusively. Following the large sales by the company, and the demand for commodities, Dangote added cement, which was already dominated, hence, faced competition from Lafarge, a French Cement importation company.
Dangote was awarded the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger in 2011 and was listed in Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world in 2014. He has been involved in economic and political activities, and his views have made him a polarizing figure especially on his influence to the Economy of Nigeria. He has engaged in political activities in several countries and was the founder of the largest oil refinery in Africa.

## Early life
### Family

Aliko Dangote was born on 10 April 1957, in Kano, Kano State, British Nigeria. His name "Aliko" was given to him by his maternal grandfather, Sanusi Dantata, which means "the victorious one who defends humanity". His mother, Mariya (née Dantata), was a businesswoman and philanthropist. His father Mohammed Dangote was a businessman, who owns a transport company. Aliko has three siblings: Sani Dangote (1959/60–2021), a businessman who died of colorectal cancer; Bello, who died in a 1996 plane crash alongside the son of Sani Abacha; Garba, who died in 2013 after a stroke. Dangote is of Hausa ancestry and was raised a Muslim.
Dangote's family are influential business people. His great-grandfather Alhassan Abdullahi Dantata was the richest person in West Africa until his death in 1955. During his business career, Alhassan imports Kola nuts from Ghana, and exports groundnuts abroad. After Dangote's father died in 1965, he donated his inheritance to charity. He cites his grandfather Sanusi, and maternal uncle, Usman Amaka Dantata, as his paternal figures.

### Education and marriage

Dangote was educated at Sheikh Ali Kumasi Madrasa for his primary school and later finished at Capital High School in Kano. In 1978, he graduated from the Government College, Birnin Kudu, where he had his secondary education. He proceeded to Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt, for his tertiary education. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in business studies and administration in 1976.
Dangote has fathered four children; three daughters and an adopted son, Abdulrahman. According to Nigerian website Legit.ng, unlike Dangote, his wives hated publicity, and cites it may be the reason for little information about them on the media. At the age of twenty, in 1977, he married his first wife, Zainab, who was selected by his parents following the customs of the land. They gave birth to Maria and Halima. The couple divorced in an unknown year. In an unknown date, he married Mariya Muhammad Rufai, the daughter of former Commissioner for Woman Affairs and Human Services in Bauchi State. Through the marriage, he had his third daughter, Fatima. The couple divorced in 2017.

## Business career

Dangote started his first business with a $3000 loan from his uncle. He traded food products, and has cited getting business mind from selling boiled sugar sweets at the age of eight to his classmates, and would keep the profits. He obtained Nigerian government import license and added cement to his business in the mid-to-late 1970s during Nigerian Cement Armada; a period where the government ordered the importation of 16 million metric tons of cement for infrastructure and development projects, however, many cement-loaded ships remained at Lagos harbor, while others sank. They were given demurrage fee as compensation for delay. During that period, Dangote purchased trucks and began cargo transportation business where he also carried his cements.
In 1977, Dangote's company produced pasta, salt, sugar, and flour only. In 1981, he expanded his company into a conglomerate, which traded textiles, sugar, flour, salt, oil and gas, and real estate. He stayed in Atlanta, Georgia before returning to Nigeria to start his cement business in 1998, however, his sugar refinery in Lagos became the second largest in the world. Dangote Group has been considered as one of the largest conglomerates in Africa. 1n 2000, after his friend Olusegun Obasanjo won the 1999 Nigerian presidential election, the Nigerian government privatized Benue Cement Company (BBC), a now defunct state-owned company in Gboko, Benue State, allowing Dangote to expand his cement business in Benue. Dangote's Obajanu cement plant in Kogi State became the largest cement plant in Sub-Saharan Africa. In 2010, the group acquired some part of South Africa's Sephaku Cement.
In July 2012, Dangote's request to the Nigerian Ports Authority inorder to lease an abandoned land at Apapa Port Complex was approved. In February 2022, he announced the completion of the Peugeot assembling facility in Nigeria following his partnership with Stellantis, the parent company manufacturers of Peugeot. Dangote became the owner of Dangote Refinery, the largest oil refinery in Africa. It was commissioned in 2023.

## Criticisms

In a 2014 Op-ed on Vanguard News, former Director General of the Nigerian Broadcasting Service Sa'adatu Modibbo Kawu questioned Dangote's source of income. He wrote that Dangote benefits from Nigeria's market especially after the country's transition to civil rule. He cites the National Bureau of Statistics of Nigeria writing that many Nigerians have gotten poorer. While criticising Forbes for celebrating Dangote, he called it "an uber-capitalist magazine".
Dangote was alleged to have supported Obasanjo's presidential election in 1999, hence, Obasanjo provided him with "exclusive" import rights of cement, sugar, and rice. In a dated 2007 diplomatic cable that appeared on WikiLeaks in 2011, the US consul general in Lagos Brian Browne suggested that Dangote was given preferential treatment in exchange for funding Obasanjo's reelection campaign in 2003. Dangote dismissed the claim.

## Personal life

Dangote was a member of President Jonathan's economic management team and job creation committee in 2011. Also in November of the same year, he was awarded the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger, the second highest honour in Nigeria. He was the first nongovernmental figure to receive the distinction.
In 2012 and 2013, he sued Cletus Ibeto citing that Ibeto Cement receives illegal tax breaks. He is a philanthropist and along with his foundation, Dangote Foundation, has reportedly contributed to the social and education sector of Nigeria; in 2011, he reportedly give $60 to each displaced person as a result of the violence 2011 Nigerian presidential election.
Dangote has five grandchildren. He took his family to Walt Disney World in 2012.

## Legacy

Dangote became the first billionaire in Nigeria in 2007. In 2012 The Guardian wrote that he is the richest man in Africa and the richest black man in the world." According to Nigerian newspaper Vanguard, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index reports that Dangote's wealth increased by $9.2 billion in 2013. The 2015 Swiss Leaks revealed that he was a client of the British university Bank, HSBC, thereby having assets in the British Virgin Islands.
While serving as a member of NEMT, Dangote was awarded the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON) by President Goodluck Jonathan in 2011. He was the first non government official to receive the distinction. In April 2014, Time listed him among its 100 most influential people in the world. In 2015 Dangote was listed among "50 Most Influential Individuals in the World" by Bloomberg, the Guardian Man of the Year award, and was cited as one of the top 100 most influential Africans by London-based magazine, New African.
Dangote was named co-chair of the US-Africa Business Center in September 2016 by the United States Chamber of Commerce. he was appointed as the Chairman of the Nigeria End Malaria Council by Buhari in August 2022.

## Public image
### Accolades

Dangote was appointed by Goodluck Jonathan as member of his economic management team in 2011. In 2017, he denied the alleged run for Nigerian president in the 2019 election, and served on the special advisory committee for the reelection campaign of Muhammadu Buhari.
Dangote has worked alongside the Gates Foundation on public health issues. In August 2014, he donated 150 million naira to assist the Nigerian government's efforts of treating and preventing Ebola. In May 2016 he pledged $10 million to support Nigerians affected by the Boko Haram insurgency. In March 2020, he donated 200 million naira to fight against the spread of COVID-19 in Nigeria.
Dangote is a fan of English football team Arsenal F.C. and showed interest in buying the club in 2019. In 2020, he made a donation to Nigeria's ministry of sports in order to help renovate the Moshood Abiola National Stadium in Abuja.