Aliko Dangote: All You Need To Know About Nigeria’s And Africa’s Richest Man

Ahaji Aliko Dangote GCON, is a Nigerian business mogul and philanthropist who is the founder and chairman of Dangote Group, an industrial conglomerate in Africa.

He has an estimated net worth of US$11 billion (2022), making him the 125nd wealthiest person in the world and the richest person in Africa.

Aliko Dangote, an ethnic Hausa Muslim from Kano, Kano State, was born on 10 April 1957 into a wealthy Muslim family, the son of Mohammed Dangote and Mariya Sanusi Dantata, herself the daughter of Sanusi Dantata.

He is the great-grandson of Alhaji Alhassan Dantata, the richest West African at the time of his death in 1955.

Dangote was educated at the Sheikh Ali Kumasi Madrasa, followed by Capital High School, 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, Cairo.

The Dangote Group was established as a small trading firm in 1977, the same year Dangote relocated to Lagos to expand the company. 

Today, it is a multi trillion-naira conglomerate with many of its operations in Benin, Ghana, Nigeria, Zambia and Togo.

Dangote 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.

The Dangote Group is now building one of the biggest Refineries in the World, The 20 billion Dollars Dangote Refinery in Lekki area of Lagos State. The Refinery when completed will be refining 650,000 barrels of Crude Oil per day.