Aliko Dangote

Founder of the Dangote Group — turned a trading fortune into Africa’s largest industrial conglomerate (cement, sugar, salt, flour, fertiliser, and the 650,000-bpd Dangote Refinery), and was Africa’s richest person for over a decade.

Aliko Dangote (born 1957, Kano) is a Nigerian industrialist who built Africa’s biggest industrial empire. Born into the Dantata trading dynasty, he began as a commodities trader in 1977 and then executed a sweeping backward integration — from importing cement, sugar and staples to manufacturing them at continental scale. Dangote Cement (NSE-listed since 2010) became sub-Saharan Africa’s largest, and the ~$19-20bn, 650,000-bpd Dangote Refinery near Lagos is the world’s largest single-train refinery. He has been Africa’s richest person, and the world’s wealthiest Black person, for most of the time since 2008.

Notable achievements

• Built Dangote Cement into sub-Saharan Africa’s largest cement producer; listed it on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (2010) as the bourse’s most valuable company.
• Executed a textbook backward integration — from importing cement, sugar and staples to manufacturing them domestically at scale.
• Built the Dangote Refinery (~650,000 bpd, ~$19-20bn), the world’s largest single-train refinery, to end Nigeria’s dependence on imported fuel.
• Africa’s richest person for over a decade and the world’s wealthiest Black person (Forbes).
• Expanded operations across roughly 17 African countries, employing tens of thousands.

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