How African Richest Man Aliko Dangote turned a $3000 loan into a $19 billion empire

According to assessments by Forbes and Bloomberg, Aliko Dangote has become the wealthiest businessman in Africa and the richest Black man in the world during the past ten years and counting. Numerous Africans, African Americans, and other people of color throughout the world have been inspired by his narrative.

Dangote’s net worth is $12.7 billion, according to Forbes, and $19 billion, according to Bloomberg. He mostly derives his income from Dangote Cement, one of Africa’s most popular and well-known companies. His cement firm operates in 10 nations around Africa and has a production capacity of 48.6 million metric tons yearly.

In addition to operating a cement factory, Dangote also operates an oil refinery, a sugar factory, and a fertilizer and pesticide manufacturing facility. His refinery, which is currently being built, is anticipated to be among the biggest in the world and would assist in lowering Nigeria’s reliance on imported processed petroleum.

Additionally, he is involved in the production of automobiles through his company, Dangote Peugeot Automobiles Nigeria Limited (DPAN). Beginning with the Land Trek, 3008, 5008, and the new 508, the vehicles’ assembly began.

How did Dangote begin his path to being the richest Black person in the world and a successful businessman? Around 65 years ago, Dangote was born into a prosperous northern Nigerian trading family. Alhassan Dantata, Dangote’s great-grandfather, traded primarily groundnuts and kola nuts. However, Dantata was also one of the richest men in the British colonies in West Africa.

“My great-grandfather was a kola nut trader, and the richest man in West Africa at the time of his death,” He told Time Magazine during a world economic forum event. “My father was a businessman and politician. I was actually raised by my grandfather. It’s traditional in my culture for grandparents to take the first grandchild and raise it. I had a lot of love, and it gave me a lot of confidence.”

Despite coming from a wealthy family, Dangote forged his own way in business. He began seeking for his own money when he was still in primary school, which was pretty early. He’ll sell sweets to raise money for his education. He also put forth a lot of effort working for his uncle Sani Dangote, which helped him establish the groundwork for his success in business.

“I can remember when I was in primary school, I would go and buy cartons of sweets (candies) and I would start selling them just to make money. I was so interested in business, even at that time,” he said.

He asked his uncle for a loan to establish a firm not long after earning his degree in business studies and administration from Al-Azhar University in Egypt, one of the largest Islamic colleges.

He ultimately received a $3000 loan from his uncle to begin importing and trading agricultural goods in Nigeria. Sugar, rice, pasta, salt, cotton, millet, cocoa, textiles, and vegetable oil from Brazil and Thailand were among the commodities he dealt.

His company took off right away, and three months later he had paid back the debt from his uncle. He entered the cement business in 1973 by purchasing trucks and resold them to others for profit.

He dumbed cement and went into the selling of sugar, rice and other commodities. He eventually got back into the cement industry with a factory. In the first year, he went from having zero market share in Nigeria to controlling about 45 percent of the market.

He told Bloomberg: “Now the country is producing 42 million tons, of which 29 million tons is ours—and it’s not only Nigeria that we ­benefit, but we’ve also been able to go to 17 other African countries. By 2019 we’ll have 80 million tons of capacity.”

The success of his cement factory inspired him to start manufacturing some of the products he was importing or buying from others. In 1997, he built a plant and started manufacturing pasta, sugar, salt and flour.

Today, all his companies operate under the empire Dangote Group, where he is the chairman. The group employs over 30,000 workers in Nigeria and across Africa. Dangote group includes the following firms: Dangote Cement Plc Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc and Dangote Flour Mills Plc.

Others include 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 Fertilisers.

Dangote’s rise to become one of the most powerful and successful entrepreneurs in Africa and the world at large shows the potential of African youth to become successful in the field of entrepreneurship and in any endeavour, given the necessary enabling environment which is often lacking.

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