When he was eight years old, Aliko Dangote lost his father and was sent to live with his maternal grandfather. That boy born in Kano, in northern Nigeria, he learned three things in his new home: perseverance, patience and ambition.
Born into a wealthy family of merchants — his grandfather sold cola nuts and his father was a businessman and politician — shortly after graduating in business administration from Egypt's Al-Azhar University, his uncle gave him a loan of half a million dollars. so that he could get fired with his own business.
At the age of 21, he moved to Lagos and after six months he had already repaid the money. That day the Dangote Group was born, which in a few years would become one of the largest African emporiums dedicated to the trade of sugar, flour and baby food, as well as the largest cement producer on the continent.
The presence of Dangote sacs is continental. It doesn't matter if the destination is chaotic Somalia, broken South Sudan or distant Mozambique, Dangote's stamped cement sacks reach any corner of Africa.
That first business venture also started the legend of Dangote as King Midas of Africa. At 65, he has been fourteen in the first position of the richest man on the continent with a fortune of 18.7 billion euros, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. In perspective, the fortune of the 73rd richest man in the world is equivalent to the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth fortunes of Spain combined. A practicing Muslim -he has made a pilgrimage to Mecca twice-, Dango is also one of the greatest African personalities: Time magazine chose him as one of the hundred most influential people in the world and the American Bill Gates described him as "a leader in the search for constant effort to reduce the gap between private enterprise and public health” and applauded his philanthropic fight against hunger, polio or malaria.
Dangote insists that his success has not happened overnight and he always keeps in mind the values instilled in him by his grandfather. “You could easily say that hard work and perseverance,” he said in African Business, “go hand in hand with patience. People often say that patience pays off, but they don't practice it. I did, and look how well it worked for me."
Now he tries to advise the new generations. “Today's young people want to be like me, but they are in a hurry. That's not how it is. To start a successful business you must start from the bottom and dream big. In the business world, tenacity is the most important thing.”
Gifted with a good dose of left hand, Dangote has been able to deal with a dozen Nigerian presidents and his image as an honorable businessman remains practically intact despite having become rich in one of the most corrupt countries on the continent.
Criticized for years for his proximity to the historic People's Democratic Party (PDP) and his close friendship with former President Olasegun Obasanjo, Dangote maintains a good relationship with the current Nigerian president Muhammadu Buhari and his business ties extend both in Muslim regions and in the Christian south of the country.
Although he had youthful excesses, such as a collection of 25 luxury cars with which he admitted to having driven at more than 200 kilometers per hour on Nigerian roads, Dangote says that he focused after the birth of his second daughter.
His modus operandi exudes a predatory ambition. If he launches into a business sector, he assures, he first studies it in detail to understand it and, when he decides, he seeks to be the best.
“I always tried to grow up in the food chain. I started with cement and then moved on to textiles and banking. When I was dealing in sugar, I also switched to salt and flour, because that way we could also produce pasta. So I thought, why don't we pack it too?
Although he now takes a week's vacation every fifteen days of work, he does not think about retiring. It has a new ambition: after building factories throughout Nigeria, adding other business sectors (fertilizers, banking, rice, frozen fish...) and expanding its operations to a dozen African countries, Dangote announced five years ago its foray into the Nigerian oil.
He did it, as he always has, in a big way. He initiated the construction of the first large black gold refinery in Nigeria, the largest African producer of crude oil. After several delays, it will come into operation in mid-2023.
In recent years, Dangote has also established himself as a continental spokesman. A staunch defender of the bright future of the African continent, whenever he gets the chance he asks international investors to point south. “Investing in Africa,” he explained to The Time, “is a long-term project. If you are thinking only in the short term, you should not invest in Africa at all. But it is a great place to invest… and anyone who does not invest in Africa will regret it.”
