QUICK FACTS
Born: 10 April 1957 (age 63)
Born Place: Kano, Northern Nigeria
Education: Government College, Birnin Kudu
Alma mater: Al-Azhar University
Occupation: Industrialist
Years active: 1977–present
Known for: Founding and leading the Dangote Group
Net worth: US$10.7 billion (December 2020)
BIOGRAPHY
Aliko Dangote GCON (born 10 April 1957) is a Nigerian billionaire business magnate. He is the wealthiest person in Africa, with an estimated net worth of US$13.5 billion (July 2020).
Family
EARLY LIFE
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, 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.
Education
Dangote was educated at the Sheikh Ali Kumasi Madrasa, followed by Capital High School, Kano. On his early life, he has said:
“I can remember when I was in primary school, I would go and buy cartons of sweets [candy] and I would start selling them just to make money. I was so interested in business, even at that time.”
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.
PERSONAL LIFE
Dangote lives in Lagos, Nigeria. He has been married and divorced twice. He has three daughters– Mariya, Halima, Fatimah– and one adopted son Abdulrahman Fasasi.
Awards & Recognition
- Dangote was awarded Nigeria’s second-highest honour, the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON) by the former president, Goodluck Jonathan.
- Dangote was named as the Forbes Africa Person of the Year 2014.
- For six consecutive years, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018 Forbes listed him as the ‘Most Powerful Man in Africa’.
- In 2014, he was listed CNBC’s ‘Top 25 Businessmen in the World’ that changed and shaped the century.
- In April 2014, TIME Magazine listed him among its 100 Most Influential People in the World.
- In October 2015, Dangote was listed among ’50 Most Influential Individuals in the World’ by Bloomberg Markets.
- He won ‘The Guardian Man of the Year 2015’.
- He won the ‘2016 African Business Leader Award,’ organised by the Africa-America Institute (AAI).
- Dangote was cited as one of the Top 100 most influential Africans by New African magazine in 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2019.
The contents of this page are sourced from Wikipedia article on 25 March 2021. The contents are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license.
