ALIKO DANGOTE:
Industrial Colossus
Aliko Dangote has become
such a colossus in the Nigerian investment world.
His sprawling business interests which spread across the
West African Sub-region from the
Republic
of
Benin
, through
Ghana
to
Cote d’Ivoire
, puts in proper perspective his
entrepreneurial skills, with textiles, foods and transportation as
his strategic forte.
The
Kano
born sugar merchant got his first break in
1977 at the age of 21 years. 1977
was the year he actually went into cement business.
Today, Dangote has his
tentacles in almost every sphere of human activity and owns about
six companies including Dangote Nigeria Limited, Dangote Textiles
Limited, Dangote Holdings, Blue Star Limited, Dansa Foods, and
recently the Dangote Flour Mills factory that was established in
Kano.
He started out under
studying his Uncle, Sanusi Dantata before setting up his own
business in the late 1970s with a loan from his uncle.
Dangote moved from
Kano
to
Lagos
where he participated in the massive
importation and sale of cement needed for the country’s
development. Having
cut his business teeth here and made his money, Dangote has never
looked back till date. He
directs a business that has diversified from its early
concentration on commodity trading into banking, agriculture,
manufacturing, textile and transportation.
Dangote controls 60% of
sugar market in
Nigeria
today, given the heavy demand by
Nigeria
’s soft drink industry, breweries, and
confectionary industries for sugar.
Because of his enormous investment in the business and his
transport haulage business, he can distribute his sugar faster,
cheaper and at a uniform price nationwide which the competition
cannot match. Dangote
is reputed to have good investments even in foreign based sugar
refineries that supply him.
Dangote also imports and
sells rice, vegetable oil, and cement.
He employs over 2000 Nigerian as his workforce in his
various business.
In the 1980s, Dangote
decided to move from being just a successful commodity dealer to a
more rounded entrepreneur with solid investments in finance and
manufacturing.
Newswatch Special Feature, Friday, 15 November 2002
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