Aliko Dangote is a Nigerian billionaire businessman, who is the founder, chairman, CEO of Dangote Group, an industrial conglomerate in Africa which now controls much of Nigeria’s commodities.. He has an estimated net worth of US$8.3 billion, making him the 162nd wealthiest person in the world and the richest person in Africa. In 2014, at the peak of his wealth, Aliko’s net worth topped $16 billion.
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 has moved from being a trading company to be the largest industrial group in Nigeria including Dangote Sugar Refinery, Dangote Cement, and Dangote Flour.
In Nigeria today, Dangote Group with its dominance in the sugar market and refinery business is the main supplier (70 percent of the market) to the country’s soft drinks companies, breweries, and confectioners. It is the largest refinery in Africa and the third-largest in the world, producing 800,000 tonnes of sugar annually.
Dangote Group owns salt factories and flour mills and is a major importer of rice, fish, pasta, cement, and fertilizer. The company exports cotton, cashew nuts, cocoa, sesame seeds, and ginger to several countries. It also has major investments in real estate, banking, transport, textiles, oil, and gas. The company employs more than 11,000 people and is the largest industrial conglomerate in West Africa.
