History was made few days ago when President Goodluck Jonathan named the African foremost business mogul, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, the winner of the prestigious second highest Nigerian national honour of Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON). BAYO OLADEJI writes that with this new diadem, the richest African has conquered new grounds
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Alhaji? Aliko Dangote, FORBES’ rated Africa’s richest man and the first Nigerian to make the? media? World’s billionaires list, has scored another goal this year. His name is among the 137 that make this year list. He will be conferred with the prestigious second highest Nigerian national award of Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON). The award is next to the Grand Commander of the Federal Republic which is reserved for Nigerian presidents and former military heads of state.
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With this award, Dangote becomes the first private individual outside government to receive the second highest national honour. This is because until he broke the record, the GCON had only been bestowed on Vice-Presidents, Chief Justices of Nigeria and Senate Presidents. The FORBES number two billionaire in the country, Mike Adenuga, holds the national honour of Commander of the Order of the Niger, (CON).
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Although the Presidency has not disclosed why it breaks the national award tradition but economic watchers see the honour as recognition of the immense contributions Dangote has contributed to the economic growth of Nigeria in the last decade. Apart from his closeness to the corridors of power, Dangote is reputed to be the highest employer of labour in the country today with a workforce of over 20,000 spread across not fewer than 10 countries in Africa.
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The Dangote Group includes but not limited to the following subsidiaries: ALCO International Limited; Dangote Nigeria Limited; Dangote Transport Limited, Dangote Cement Plc. – Listed on Nigeria Stock Exchange; National Salt Company of Nigeria Plc. – Listed on Nigeria Stock Exchange; Dangote Flour Mills Plc. – Listed on Nigeria Stock Exchange; Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc. – Listed on Nigeria Stock Exchange; Dangote Oil & Gas Industries International; Dangote Textiles Limited; Dangote Holdings Limited; Blue Star Limited, Dansa Foods Limited, and Dansa Food Processing Limited. Others are Dancom Technologies; GreenView International Company Limited – Has invested US$28+ million in cement factory in Ghana. Sephaku Cement Limited – Dangote Group has 64 per cent shareholding in this South African cement company- Alheri Engineering Limited and Kura Holdings Limited
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With an estimated current net worth of around $13.8 billion, he was ranked by Forbes as one of the richest Nigerian citizens the richest person of African descent in the world toppling Mohammed Al Amoudi ($12.3 billion) and Oprah Winfrey ($2.7 billion).
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Alikote Dangote was born on April 10,1957. Shortly before he was rated the richest man in the continent, a reporter referred to him as the richest in the course of their meeting? but he quickly said “I think I have to be rated by Forbes magazine first before I can be (called) the richest man in Africa. But, you know, I’m comfortable.”
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As if he had given invitation to the world rated media, shortly after, the Fulani business tycoon was ranked the first in Nigeria in the Forbes 2008 list of the richest people in the world with a fortune estimated at $3.3 billion.
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His story rightly affirms the saying, “It is not how long but how well.” Aliko Dangote is the ‘golden child’ of Nigerian business circles. The Dangote consortium spans across many sectors of the Nigerian economy with interest in cements, sugar, salt, flour, rice, spaghettis, textile and a host of others at competitive prices.
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Although unlike the late business mogul, Bashorun Moshood Abiola, Dangote is a non-partisan? businessperson yet he is generous to different political parties, religious groups and cultural institutions. No general election in the last 10 years held without his generous donation to the political class. He was among those that sponsored the second term election of former President Olusegun Obasanjo. But investigations revealed that those who ran against Obasanjo too benefited from his deep pocket.
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Unarguably, Dangote is synonymous with employment. Apart from providing employment to elite graduates from different ethnic backgrounds, he minimizes the level of crime by engaging youths who are school leavers in the area of transportation, packaging, security amongst others.
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The Dangote Group imports 400,000 metric tonnes of sugar annually which accounts for about 70 per cent of the total requirements of the country and is a major supplier of the product to the manufacturers of Coca Cola, Pepsi Cola and Seven-Up in Nigeria. It imports 200,000 metric tonnes of rice annually just as the company imports tonnes of cement and fertilizer and building materials. Dangote Group also imports fish and owns three big fishing trawlers chartered for fishing with a 5,000 MT capacity. On the export list of the group are cotton, cocoa, cashew nuts, sesame seed, ginger and gum Arabic.
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As the Scripture says “Though your beginning is very small but your end will be very great” Dangote is the best illustration of this great maxim. The Kano-born business tycoon, has the source of this fastest and greatest business empire in Africa in his maternal grandfather, the late Alhaji Sanusi Dantata who sowed a seed which became the capital to start his own business. He then started his business in Kano in 1977 trading in commodities and building materials before relocating to Lagos, then Federal Capital of Nigeria.
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Information available to LEADERSHIP shows that Dangote group” today is involved in diverse forms of manufacturing with high turnover. Dangote textile and the Nigeria Textiles Mills Plc, which it acquired, produce over 120,000 meters of finished textiles daily. The group has a ginnery in Kankawa, Katsina State with a capacity of 30,000 MT of seeded cotton annually.
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The sugar refinery at Apapa port, Lagos is the largest in Africa and in size the third largest in the world with an annual capacity of 700,000 tonnes of refined sugar annually. It also has another 100,000 tonne-capacity sugar mill at Hadeja in Jigawa State.
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“Apart from having substantial investment in the National Salt Company of Nigeria at Ota, Ogun State, the group has salt factories at Apapa and Calabar, a polypropylene bagging factory which produces required bags for its products, over 600 trailers for efficient distribution network and goods meant for export can also efficiently be transported to the ports.
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“A vehicle leasing unit with over 100 fully air-conditioned commuter buses, is also part of the Dangote Group. It is also into real estate with luxury flats and high rise complexes in Ikoyi, Victoria Island, Abuja and Kano. Dangote Foundation is the philanthropic arm of the group where he yearly spends millions for worthy causes such as contributions to educational and healthcare institutions, sinking of boreholes and giving of scholarships.”
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Although a Fulani by birth and a Moslem by conviction, but his business success may be influenced by various factors which include his non-discriminatory policy which helps him in bringing in the best brains. The fact that his Personal Assistant is of Yoruba extraction while his Head of Corporate Affairs is a Christian from Delta State attest to this.
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Dangote was recently reported to have talked about his driving force in business, the factors that have kept him above his contemporaries in business, his $800 million cement factory at Obajana, Kogi State and the N14 million mega company, which he and some industrialists have set up. Perhaps his patriotism seems unbeatable among his peers because he never shied away from disclosing his faith in the country. Hear him; “If you give me today $5 billion, I will not invest? abroad, I will invest everything here in Nigeria. Let us put heads together and work.”
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As a self-employed person, with minimum basic education, he proves that business success can be through determination, honesty and perseverance; and not necessarily by acquiring Harvard-Oxford certificates or First-Class academic qualification. His managerial skill must surely be the envy of economic professors. Instead of stashing his funds in foreign accounts, a common feature of fraudulent front and public office looters, Dangote invests wisely in the productive sector of the Nigerian economy.
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Unarguably, Dangote group has monopoly over some of the commodities in the Nigerian market as its closest rivals are several miles behind. The fact that Dangote was among some notable Nigerians who float a private sector mega company with the name Transnational Corporation of Nigeria (TCN), which amongst other things acquires? government-owned refinery, operate strategic state-owned companies and pioneer status in Agriculture and Information Technology is an eye opener..
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Apparently, it is all these among others that pushed those who recommended his name for the national honour to do so and the same factor must have influenced the final authority, President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan to elevate him from the CON recommended by the Panel to the position of the GCON. There is no one else that could break the jinx of sharing same national honour with the former and serving Vice President, Senate President and Chief Justice of Nigeria other than the richest Blackman.
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This, no doubt, would encourage him to do more and to serve as a challenge to his peers to borrow a leaf from the great Nigerian who today stands shoulder higher than any other entrepreneur in Africa.
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It is regrettable that some wealthy Nigerians are investing abroad when our youths are wasting away in the labour market.? Some have relocated their businesses to the neighboring Ghana in the pretext of reducing the cost of production as a result of the epileptic power supply in the country. The tertiary institutions in the country produce not fewer than 300,000 graduates annually whereas there are no new job opportunities to absorb two per cent of them! This is why President Jonathan should be commended for appreciating the economic contribution of the living legend in our midst.?
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