BIOGRAPHY AND INSPIRING STORY OF ALIKO DANGOTE, AFRICA'S RICHEST MAN AND FOUNDER OF DANGOTE GROUP


 Aliko Dangote is a Nigerian entrepreneur and industrialist who is the founder of the Dangote Group of companies that has subsidiaries in several industries like Cement manufacturing, Sugar Refinery, frieght business and recently his company ventured into the oil exploration in the oil rich region of Nigeria.

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Aliko Dangote was born on the 10th of April in the year 1957 in a place called  Kano which is found in the Kano State in the West African country of Nigeria.

 He was born into a wealthy family as the son of Mohammed Dangote and his mother is called Maria Sanusi Dantata.

  Aliko Dangote's grand father was the richest man in West Africa during his time and he died in the year 1955.

Dangote attended Sheikh  Ali Kumasi Madrasa  where he obtained his primary school education and later joined Capital High School which is located in Kano where he obtained his secondary school education.

 After completing his secondary school education, Aliko Dangote went to Al-Azhar University which is found in Cairo in Egypt where graduated with Bachelors degree in Business studies and administration in the year 1977.

After completing his degree in Egypt, Dangote returned to his home country in Nigeria where he decided to venture into business.

 Dangote moved to Lagos which is the financial centre of Nigeria and he borrowed a loan of $500,000 from his uncle and then he started trading in commodities like Cement and other agricultural products like rice and sugar selling these to people around his residence and those who lived around Lagos.

His business became very successful that he was actually able to pay back the loan that he received from his uncle in just three months from the time when he ventured into business.

 Dangote decided to venture into manufacturing in the year 1999 by building sugar refineries and also flour milling plants around the country.

 In 2010, the sales of sugar quadrapled to about $450 million dollars according to Forbes Magazine and during that time the Dangote Sugar decided to debut on the Nigerian Stock Exchange and it became the largest sugar refinery in Africa and also the second largest refinery in the world.

 Dangote Flour was also able to triple it's revenue to about $270 million dollars. Aliko Dangote has described his entrepreneurial journey as an exciting experience although he has also faced alot of challenges along the way.

He told Forbes Africa that he was able to overcome these challenges by thinking big and also using an innovative approach.

According to Aliko Dangote, he is motivated by the impact that he can have on humanity  and he told Forbes Magazine that he would like to be remembered for the things that he was able to do to others out there.

The small trading firm that started back in the year 1977 is now a multi-trillion naira conglomerate that has expanded into other African countries like Benin, Zambia, Togo and even Ghana.

According to Forbes Magazine, in January 2020 Aliko Dangote was estimated to have a networth of about $10 billion dollars making him the richest man in Africa and also the 88th richest person in the world according to Bloomberg index.

Aliko Dangote is an inspiration to all people in Africa especially the youths that it is possible to achieve your dreams and goals if you work hard and are determined to do whatever it takes to become successful.

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