10 Things you Should Know About ALIKO DANGOTE

He is regarded as a great source of inspiration to entrepreneurs in Nigeria and across Africa especially and has over the years proved his worth.

Known to be one of the richest men in Africa, Dangote once made it known he has not had a vacation in 20 years.

It used to be. I was working very hard for a long time to build up my business. Now, I try to take a week’s vacation every two weeks. We live in Lagos, on Victoria Island, but I like to go to Miami with my family. I used to own two homes in Atlanta. But it was a lot of trouble. There are leaky roofs, you have to call people. It takes up too much time to own property everywhere. Now I stay at the St. Regis. I used to like cars a lot, too. I had 25 of them, Porches, Ferraris. I would drive from Lagos to Kano at 180 miles per hour. But I stopped that after I had my second daughter.

On his upbringing, he said;

My great-grandfather was a kola nut trader, and the richest man in West Africa at the time of his death. My father was a businessman and politician. I was actually raised by my grandfather. It’s traditional in my culture for grandparents to take the first grandchild and raise it (Dangote’s older sister died as a baby in a car accident). I had a lot of love, and it gave me a lot of confidence.

Here are 10 things you should know about Aliko Dangote

1. Dangote was born on April 1957 in Kano State. He snagged a degree in Business Studies and from Al-Azahar University, Cairo, Egypt.

2. He began his entrepreneurship life in Primary school buying cartons of sweets and selling to fellow students to make profits.

3. Dangote got his first capital for business at the age of t 21 years from his uncle, the late Alhaji Sanusi Dantata.

4. He started his business in 1977 in Kano state. Dangote started trading in commodities as well as building supplies. Not long after he started, he moved to Lagos and began trading in cement.

5. He played a major role funding the re-election of Olusegun Obasanjo in 2003. According to reports, he gave over 200 million naira to this cause and also contributed 200 million to the Presidential Library.

6. He was awarded Nigeria’s second-highest honour, Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON) on 14 November 2011 by former President Goodluck Jonathan

7. Dangote ensures he invests his resources in Nigeria and Africa thus playing a major role in achieving economic growth of Nigeria.

8. He currently has over 12,000 staff nationwide.

9. Dangote is known to not be driven by religious tribalism and worked with people with a good prospect for the advancement of his company and the nation at large.

10. He donated 150 million Naira to aimed at stopping the spread of Ebola in 2014.