Meet Aliko Dangote, Africa’s Richest Man

Aliko Dangote was born on the 10^th Day of April 1957. He is a Nigerian billionaire, who owns the Dangote Group, which has interests in commodities. The company operates in Nigeria and other African countries, including Benin, Ethiopia, Senegal, Cameroon, Ghana, South Africa, Togo, Tanzania, and Zambia. As of June 2016, he had an estimated net worth of US$14.9 billion.

Dangote is ranked by Forbes magazine as the 67th richest person in the world and the richest in Africa; he peaked on the list as the 23rd richest person in the world in 2014. He surpassed Saudi-Ethiopian billionaire Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi in 2013 by over $2.6 billion to become the world's richest person of African descent.

Aliko Dangote comes from a family with a strong business background. His great uncle, Alhaji Alhassan Dantata was dubbed the richest African at the time of his death in 1955. Perhaps it is no surprise that Aliko had interests in business from an early age, he apparently started selling sweets while in primary school just to make money.

The Nigerian businessman founded Dangote Group in 1981 and thereafter transformed it into a conglomerate comprised of Dangote Sugar Refinery, Dangote Flour and Dangote Cement. Dangote Cement is the biggest cement producers in Africa with capacity of over 20 million metric tones per annum while Dangote Sugar Refinery boosts being the largest Sugar producers in Africa and third in the world, producing an estimated 800 thousand tons of sugar annually. Dangote has expanded his reach beyond Nigeria, to West Africa and across sub Sahara with major presence in Nigeria, Ghana, and Togo.

Forbes estimates his current worth to be $12.4 billion. Having shed $4.8 billion off his fortune within the last 12 months, Dangote is Africa’s biggest billionaire loser in dollar terms in 2016. He has been Africa’s richest person since 2013 when he surpassed Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi.