Aliko Dangote

Education and marriage

Dangote was educated at Sheikh Ali Kumasi Madrasa for his primary school and later finished at Capital High School in Kano. In 1978, he graduated from the Government College, Birnin Kudu, where he had his secondary education.

He left Nigeria for Egypt after his secondary education, and studied at Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in business studies and administration, before returning to Lagos to pursue business ventures.

Dangote has four children; three daughters and an adopted son, Abdulrahman. According to Nigerian website Legit.ng, unlike Dangote, his wives hate publicity, which may be the reason there is little information about them in the media. In 1977, at the age of twenty, he married his first wife, Zainab, who was chosen by his parents in accordance with local customs. The couple had two daughters, Maria and Halima. They later divorced, although the exact date is not known.

At an unspecified date, he entered into a second marriage with Mariya Muhammad Rufai, the daughter of the former Bauchi State Commissioner for Women Affairs and Human Services. This union produced one daughter, Fatima. The marriage ended in divorce in 2017.

Business career

Dangote launched his first business venture with a loan of $3,000 from his uncle. He initially traded in food products and has credited his early entrepreneurial instincts to selling boiled sugar sweets to classmates at the age of eight, retaining the profits for himself.

In the mid-to-late 1970s, during the period known as the Nigerian Cement Armada—when the government authorized the importation of approximately 16 million metric tons of cement for infrastructure and development projects—Dangote obtained an import license and expanded his business to include cement. However, logistical challenges led to numerous cement-laden ships being stranded at the Lagos harbor, while some reportedly sank. Importers were compensated with demurrage fees for the delays.

During this time, Dangote acquired a fleet of trucks and established a cargo transportation business, which he also used to distribute his cement products.

In 1977, Dangote's company produced pasta, salt, sugar, and flour. In 1981, he expanded his company into a conglomerate, which traded textiles, sugar, flour, salt, oil and gas, and real estate. He stayed in Atlanta, Georgia before returning to Nigeria to start his cement business in 1998. His sugar refinery in Lagos became the second largest in the world. Dangote

Group has been considered to be one of the largest conglomerates in Africa. In 2000, after his friend Olusegun Obasanjo won the 1999 Nigerian presidential election, the Nigerian government privatized Benue Cement Company (BCC), a now defunct state-owned company in Gboko, Benue State, allowing Dangote to expand his cement business in Benue. Dangote's Obajana cement plant in Kogi State became the largest cement plant in Sub-Saharan Africa. In 2010, the group acquired part of South Africa's Sephaku Cement.

In July 2012, Dangote's request to the Nigerian Ports Authority to lease abandoned land at Apapa Port Complex was approved. In February 2022, he announced the completion of the Peugeot assembling facility in Nigeria following his partnership with Stellantis, the company manufacturing Peugeot. Dangote became the owner of Dangote Refinery, the largest oil refinery in Africa. It was commissioned in 2023.

Family

Aliko Mohammad Dangote was born on 10 April 1957, in Kano, Kano State, British Nigeria. His name "Aliko" was given to him by his maternal grandfather, Sanusi Dantata; it means "the victorious one who defends humanity".

Born to a prominent Nigerian family, Dangote is of Hausa descent. Raised a Muslim, he was educated in a Madrasa and completed his primary education in a public school.

His mother, Mariya (née Dantata), from a wealthy family, was a businesswoman and philanthropist. His father Mohammed Dangote was also a businessman; he owned a transport company.

Aliko had three siblings: Sani Dangote, a businessman who died of colorectal cancer; Bello, who died in a 1996 plane crash alongside the son of Sani Abacha; and Garba, who died in 2013 after a stroke.

Dangote's family were influential business people. His maternal great-grandfather, Alhassan Abdullahi Dantata, was the richest person in West Africa until his death in 1955. During his business career, Alhassan imported kola nuts from Ghana, and exported groundnuts abroad. After Dangote's father died in 1965, he donated his inheritance to charity. He regards his maternal grandfather, Sanusi, and his maternal uncle, Usman Amaka Dantata, as influential paternal figures in his upbringing.

Dangote's business interests and philanthropic efforts extend to African countries such as Benin, Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, and Togo.

Nigeria

Dangote was a key supporter of his friend President Olusegun Obasanjo's re-election campaign in 2003. He contributed over N200 million to the campaign. In 2011, he was appointed by President Goodluck Jonathan as a member of his Economic Management Team.

Dangote was named as an adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari's reelection campaign of the 2019 Nigerian presidential election. Femi Otedola was listed also, however, spokesmen for both didn't respond to calls and requests for comments. Dangote donated ₦150 million to help combat the Ebola outbreak in 2014. In 2020, he donated ₦200 million to support the fight against COVID-19 pandemic.

Dangote's conglomerate maintains a dominant position in Nigeria's cement and sugar industries, where competitors often struggle to contend with his extensive resources and perceived government-backed advantages. The establishment of his oil refinery in Lagos has sparked concerns over potential monopolization of the fuel supply, with critics warning of increased prices and diminished market competition. These concerns have been amplified by reports of alleged government concessions, including tax exemptions, granted to the refinery.

In a 2014 Op-ed on Vanguard News, former Director General of the Nigerian Broadcasting Service Sa'adatu Modibbo Kawu questioned Dangote's source of income. He wrote that Dangote benefits from Nigeria's market especially after the country's transition to civil rule. He cites the National Bureau of Statistics of Nigeria writing that many Nigerians have gotten poorer. While criticising Forbes for celebrating Dangote, he called it "an uber-capitalist magazine".

Dangote was alleged to have supported Obasanjo's presidential election in 1999, hence, Obasanjo provided him with "exclusive" import rights of cement, sugar, and rice. In a dated 2007 diplomatic cable that appeared on WikiLeaks in 2011, the US consul general in Lagos Brian Browne suggested that Dangote was given preferential treatment in exchange for funding Obasanjo's reelection campaign in 2003. Dangote dismissed the claim.