“I
built a conglomerate and emerged the richest black man in the world in 2008 but
it didn't happen overnight. It took
me 30 years to get to where I am today. Youths of today aspire to be like me
but they want to achieve it overnight. It's
not going to work. To build a successful business, you must start small and
dream big. In the journey of entrepreneurship, tenacity of purpose is supreme." - Aliko Dangote
Alhaji Aliko Dangote represents what African
businessmen should be. He is an example for aspiring entrepreneurs across the
continent. Start small, aim very high, identify and take advantage of
opportunities. Do not be discouraged by challenges. Give, and give generously to help others
make progress.
That was how Aliko Dangote, who started out as a
trader of commodities, became Africa's leading businessman, with companies in 16 countries,
employing over 10,000 people. In the process, he became the richest African and
black man on the planet, with a personal fortune of $25 billion. It is this
feat that makes him eminently qualified, and deservingly recognised as the
Vanguard Newspaper African Personality of the Year.
Born with the Midas touch
When on 10th of April 1957, a male child was born in
Kano; little was heard or known of the child. Like Shakespeare wrote in one of
his epic books, Julius Caesar, ‘when
beggars die there are no comets seen but the heavens themselves blaze the death
of Princes'. In some dynasties and royalties, when
kings are born, they are celebrated.
That was not the case in Kano when Aliko Dangote was
born. He was just like any other child. He, like other children, learnt to
crawl, walk and run. He cried like others but at school, he was focused on what
he chose to do.
He probably discovered his destiny early enough and
keyed into it. In his words:“I can
remember when I was in primary school, I would go and buy cartons of sweets
(sugar boxes) and I would start selling them just to make money. I was so
interested in business, even at that time.”Dangote, right from when he was young had his eyes on
business.
He had always, as all real entrepreneurs do, seen
opportunities where others see high risk and failure. In an atmosphere of
difficulty, when others would have given up, he took the risk. He is known for
taking great risks in a highly risky environment.
He has grown to have a Midas touch in every business
he ventured into. He started as a commodity trader, he made success of it, he
entered into sugar refining, and he made success of it. He set up cement
manufacturing; he has made a huge success of it.
Now he is venturing into petroleum product refining.
His hard work has set him apart to the envy of his detractors who only see him
as a beneficiary of government waiver and concession. But there are others who
have had the same benefit but could not make anything tangible from it.
That has brought success to him, his family, state and
his country. He has invested in the various sectors of the Nigerian economy and
across the African continent thus creating millions of direct and indirect jobs
in the continent of Africa. He has become a business colossus that bestrides
the global business environment, making him the richest African today.
Undeterred by Risks & Uncertainties
In one of the articles written by Jonathan Berman in
Harvard Business review entitled; American CEOs should Stop Complaining about
Uncertainty, he wrote how uncertainty has not deterred Aliko Dangote from
investing in Nigeria and across Africa. In the write-up, Barman said:“This month, the chief executive officers of
America's biggest companies went on a media blitz
to decry the uncertainty caused by the fiscal cliff. In such uncertain times,
they say, they are hesitant to invest in the US economy.
I departed Washington in the midst of these rumblings
to attend a forum of Africa's leading
CEOs. Here's a quick sample of the scheduled
participants: Aliko Dangote, CEO of Dangote Cement. He's building a $2 billion fertilizer plant in his native
Nigeria. He recently announced the next two growth markets for sizeable
investment by his group are Iraq and Myanmar.
"For Dangote and many other executives in frontier
markets, uncertainty is not the inhibitor of opportunity. It is the condition
in which opportunity arises. That is a reasonable perspective to look for in
American CEOs as well." The
moving force behind private enterprise all over the world is what Adam Smith
described as the invisible hand that allocates resources in the most uncertain
environment.
It is real entrepreneurs that see opportunity in very
risky areas, yet go in there with the hope of making profit. Business is about
taking risk and any local entrepreneur that is not ready to take risk is not a
genuine businessman. Dangote saw opportunities in the very uncertain and tough
business environment in Nigeria. From trading in rice, sugar and other
commodities, he veered into manufacturing in an environment many foreign and
local investors see as very risky.
Alhaji Aliko
Dangote's business empire is estimated at a net
worth of $20.8 billion as of November 2013 spanning interests in commodities
with operations in Nigeria and several other countries in Africa , including
Benin, Cameroon, Togo, Ghana, South Africa and Zambia. Dangote in 2013 was ranked by Forbes Magazine as the 43rd richest person in the world and
the richest man in Africa based on his investment and the listing of his
companies’interest at the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
Taking some of his companies to the exchange has given other Nigerians
opportunities to share in his success and has shown that he operates his
companies in an open manner.
Early life
Alhaji Aliko Dangote, a northerner, precisely from
Kano State, Nigeria, was born on the 10th of April 1957 into a wealthy Muslim
family. He studied Business at the Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt and thereafter returned to Nigeria to borrow
from his uncle, Sanusi Abdulkadir Dantata. The uncle (Dantata) eventually gave
him a loan of N500,000 when he was just 21 years old to start his own business.
Business career The Dangote Group which started as a small trading firm was
established in the year 1977. Today, it is a multi-trillion naira conglomerate
with many of its operations in Benin, Ghana, Nigeria, and Togo. At present,
Dangote has enlarged his line of businesses to also cover food processing,
cement manufacturing and freight. The Dangote Group also dominates the sugar
and cement markets in Nigeria and is a major sugar supplier to Nigeria's soft drink companies, breweries , and
confectioners.
The Dangote Group has also moved from being a trading
company to being the largest industrial group in Nigeria and the group
includes: Dangote Sugar Refinery, Dangote Cement and Dangote Flour just to mention but a few. He plans to set
up the largest petroleum product refinning facility in Nigeria.
In the month of July 2012, he approached the Nigerian
Ports Authority with the idea of leasing an abandoned piece of land at the
Apapa Port, which was welcomed and approved. He later went to build facilities
for his flour company there. In the 90's, he approached the Central Bank of Nigeria with a
proposal that it would be cheaper for the bank to allow his transport company
manage their fleet of staff buses which was also approved.
He owns the Obajana Cement plant which is the largest
cement manufacturing facility in Africa. Apart from these, Dangote Group owns
salt factories and flour mills and also a major importer of rice, fish, pasta
and fertilizer. The company exports cotton, cashew nuts, cocoa, sesame seed and
ginger to several countries. It also has major investments in real estate,
banking, transport, textiles and oil and gas.
The company employs over 11,000 people and is the
largest industrial conglomerate in the whole of West Africa. Dangote is also
exploring the telecommunications sector and has started building 14,000 kilometres
of fibre optic cables to supply the whole of Nigeria and as a result, he was
honoured in January 2009 as the leading provider of employment in the Nigerian
construction industry.
Africa's richest
man, Aliko Dangote, continues to expand his publicly traded Dangote Cement
across the continent, announcing plans to build new plants in Kenya and Niger.
With operations in about eight countries, it is the largest cement manufacturer
in sub-Sahara Africa.
In May 2013, Dangote said he would build a $9 billion
oil refinery and petrochemical complex in Nigeria. When completed, it will be
Nigeria's first and Africa's largest petroleum refinery.
His words;“As an investor who believes in Nigeria, knows Nigeria
well and whose prosperity was made in Nigeria, we have responded to the
challenge with our decision to invest $9 billion in a refinery/ petrochemical
and fertilizer complex to be located at the OKLNG Free Trade Zone. This complex
will be the largest industrial complex project ever in the history of our great
nation.
On the 14th of November, 2011, Dangote was awarded a
National Honour, Nigeria's second
highest honour, Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON ) by the President of Nigeria,
Goodluck Jonathan .
Apart from his business acumen, he is also a
philanthropist who has collaborated with American billionaire, Bill Gates
Foundation to invest in the provision of health especially the eradication of
polio in Africa and other parts of the world where the disease is still
prevalent.
The DANGOTE Group consists of:
Dangote Cement Plc
Dangote Sugar Refinery
Plc
Dangote Flour Mills Plc
Dangote Pasta Plant Limited
Dangote Agro Sacks Limited
Prayer Mats Production
Dangote Salt Plc
Ports Operations
Haulage
Steel Production
Dangote Foods Limited
Real Estate
Telecommunications
Oil Refinery, Petrochemicals and Fertilisers
The Philanthropic side of Dangote
To underscore his belief in giving back to the
society, Aliko Dangote, through his Dangote Foundation, has over the years
committed a lot of his resources into philanthropic activities.
The Dangote Foundation which was set up in 1994 is the
Corporate Social Responsibility arm of Dangote Group. The Foundation intervenes in the areas of
health, education and empowerment. The Foundation is also involved in providing
humanitarian aid to victims of natural disasters. It has contributed over $100
million (about N16 billion) in charitable funds to several causes in Nigeria
and Africa over the past four years.
Dangote recently announced plans to endow the
Foundation with N200 billion ($1.25 billion). He said the endowment would come
from personal contributions as well as shares of his publicly quoted companies,
which would be transferred to the Foundation for onward disbursement to beneficiaries.
He added that this will ensure that the Foundation has secure and steady
funding to carry out its mission as we significantly scale up our work.
Board of Trustees of the Foundation include Dangote as
Chairman; his brother, Sani; his daughter, Halima Aliko Dangote; Chief
Operating Officer, Dangote Industries Limited, Olakunle Alake; A.B Mahmoud
(SAN); former Group Managing Director/ CEO, Access Bank Plc, Aigboje Aig-
Imoukhuede; wife of the former Ekiti State Governor, Angela Adebayo; wife of the
former Managing Director/CEO Guaranty Trust Bank Plc, Hajara Adeola; and Group
Chief Executive Officer, Renaissance Capital West Africa, Mrs. Yvonne
Ike-Fasinro.
SOME OF DANGOTE'S CSR INTERVENTIONS:
$500,000 to boost UNICEF's fight against measles
The Dangote Foundation contributed $500,000 (N79.15
million) through the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) to support the Federal Government's response to recent measles outbreak that
affected many states in Nigeria. The donation was announced on April 12, 2013
in Lagos during a visit to the office of the Chairman of Dangote Foundation,
Aliko Dangote, by a delegation of the UNICEF led by the Country Representative,
Ms. Jean Gough. Gough lauded Dangote Foundation saying:“Public- Private sector interventions such
as these in the health sector and other sectors such as water and early
childhood development are the way forward for Nigeria to improve the well-being
of Nigerian children.”The grant
is a major contribution to government's fight against measles which is among the leading
causes of child deaths in Nigeria, especially in areas where immunization
coverage is low.
The grant from Dangote Foundation, Ms. Gough pointed
out, will support the measles campaign of the government through its Ministry
of Health and the National Primary Health Care Development Agency
(NPHCDA). Dangote said the issue of
health and safe living was a core responsibility in the discharge of the
corporate social responsibility of the Foundation pointing out that“we have a common synergy with UNICEF in the
areas of health, education and nutrition and we hope that our efforts will
encourage more private sector operators to engage with ongoing efforts to
improve the well-being of Nigerians.”
$6.4m to International Cancer Centre Abuja (ICCA)
Dangote Foundation made a donation of $6.4 million
towards building a world class International Cancer Centre in Abuja, in 2009.
The donation is to strengthen the fight against the disease. The International Cancer Centre Abuja (ICCA)
was initiated by Dr. Hajiya Turai Umaru Yar’Adua, former First Lady of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria, as a non- governmental humanitarian project devoted to training,
research and diagnosis of various forms of cancer. It is intended to be a
one-stop centre, providing a comprehensive range of high quality, holistic and
cost effective treatment for cancer patients in sub- Saharan Africa. The centre
will actively engage in research geared towards prevention, early diagnosis and
treatment of cancer. Education and public awareness programmes will be employed
as tools for cancer control and prevention.
Donates dialysis machines to Lagos General Hospital
Dangote Foundation, in collaboration with the Rotary
Club of Victoria Island, donated two dialysis machines to the Dialysis Centre
of the Lagos General Hospital, Marina, in April 2010, to facilitate treatment
of patients with acute and chronic kidney disease. In addition, the Foundation
provides all the consumables used for the treatment. This has drastically reduced
the treatment charges on the patients.“The machines have been of utmost importance and
inestimable benefits to the patients who come from far and near to receive
medical support. The machines have been very useful serving both the acute and
chronic kidney patients.”– Dr. Sade Soyinka, Dialysis Centre at Lagos
General Hospital, Marina, Lagos
$ 2.6m to flood victims & women in Kogi
President/Chief Executive, Dangote Group, Aliko
Dangote, on October 5, 2012, announced a donation of $2.6 million (N430
million) to victims of the flood disaster and for women empowerment in Kogi
State. At a ceremony attended by top government functionaries in the state
capital, Lokoja, Dangote said the contribution which is given through his
Dangote Foundation is meant to complement the efforts of the government in
providing relief materials to the victims and in resettling them as soon as
possible. Dangote who gave out $312,500 (N50 million) worth of foodstuff and
relief materials, and $937,000 (N150 million) in cash, also said $1.4 million
(N230 million) would be distributed to 1,000 women in each of the 21 local
government areas of the state to boost economic activities.
In his speech entitled: Lending a Helping Hand,”Dangote said, he was touched by the pain
the victims were passing through, noting that the flood has led to loss of
lives and property and may cause outbreak of epidemic.“Obviously, the government alone cannot shoulder this
onerous responsibility of bringing relief to the victims,”he said.
Partners Bank of Industry (BOI) to boost job creation
Dangote Foundation and the Bank of Industry (BOI)
signed a partnership deal that will create direct employment for one million
Nigerians over the next few years, on March 7, 2011 in Lagos.
The partners announced the funds release of $32
million in the first tranche, which is expected to grow up to $128 million
eventually.
Dangote Foundation committed $16 million to the fund,
while BOI also contributed a matching fund of $16 million, thus creating a
total fund of $32 million to launch the fund. The fund would be used for
lending to groups in the informal sector of the economy, as take off or working
capital to support their businesses.
The Dangote component of the fund attracts zero
interest, while that of BOI is 5 per cent. This is expected to impact directly
on up to 13,000 registered groups in the entire country, each with an average
of 20 entrepreneurs, thus impacting the lives of up to 250,000
micro-entrepreneurs, through job creation, spreading across all six
geopolitical zones in Nigeria. The project is first of its kind in the country.
Some beneficiaries of the Dangote/BOI partnership:
Ken Baxton Limited: Secured about N19 million
($118,012) loan from Dangote/BOI intervention fund at five per cent interest
rate.
Stallion (Ikeja) Cooperative Multi-purpose Society
Ltd: Secured a N4.8 million ($29,813) loan under the Dangote/ BOI Fund with
just 5 per cent interest rate.
Afriks Vegetable Oil Multi-purpose Cooperative
Society, Kano State: Secured a N5.1 million ($31,677) Dangote/BOI loan which
has enabled it to expand its operations.
Kudenda Thure Multi-purpose Cooperative Society:
Secured N5.25 million ($32,609) loan which has enabled it to employ more hands
to run two production shifts.
Geese (Ikeja) Cooperative Society Limited: Secured
N7.5 million ($46,584) loan at 5 per cent interest.
Wahabiyya Vegetable Oil and Cold Room: Secured N5.28
million ($32,795) loans under the Dangote/ BOI Fund.
From Vanguard
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