From trading to cement and refining
Aliko Dangote made his fortune by moving from trading goods into producing them at scale. In 1977 he started a trading business in Lagos with a loan from his uncle, dealing in commodities such as sugar, rice, flour and cement. Nigeria imported large amounts of these goods, and his company became a major importer and distributor.
In the late 1990s and 2000s Dangote shifted the group from importing to manufacturing inside Nigeria. He built sugar refineries, flour mills and salt processing plants, and above all he invested in cement. The Obajana cement plant in Kogi State became one of the largest in Africa. Dangote Cement was listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange in 2010 and became one of its most valuable companies. Nigerian government policies that encouraged local production over imports helped the group's expansion.
Dangote Cement later built plants and import terminals in many other African countries, including Senegal, Ethiopia, Zambia, Cameroon and South Africa. Most recently Dangote invested in a giant oil refinery and a fertilizer complex in the Lekki free trade zone near Lagos. His large stake in Dangote Cement and his ownership of the refinery and other group companies form the basis of his wealth.
Dangote Group companies
The group's main businesses include:
- Dangote Cement: the largest company in the group, with plants and terminals in Nigeria and across Africa
- Dangote Petroleum Refinery: a single site refinery at Lekki, built to process crude oil into fuels for Nigeria and export
- Dangote Fertiliser: a urea plant at Lekki that began operations in 2022
- Dangote Sugar Refinery: sugar refining and a growing push into domestic cane growing
- NASCON Allied Industries: salt and seasonings
Dangote Flour Mills was sold to the Singapore based agribusiness company Olam in 2019. The group has also been involved in logistics, with large fleets of trucks distributing its products across Nigeria.
The refinery has been the most ambitious project of Dangote's career. It was commissioned in May 2023 and began producing fuel in 2024. It is designed to reduce Nigeria's long dependence on imported gasoline and diesel, even though the country is a major oil producer. The project faced delays, disputes over crude supply and arguments with regulators, but it has steadily increased output and begun selling fuel to the domestic market and abroad.
Kano upbringing and first business
Aliko Dangote was born in April 1957 in Kano, in northern Nigeria, into a Muslim family with a long trading tradition. His great grandfather, Alhassan Dantata, was one of the wealthiest merchants in West Africa in the early 20th century, known for trading kola nuts and groundnuts. Dangote has said that he showed an interest in business from childhood, buying sweets and reselling them to classmates at school.
His father died when he was young, and he was raised partly by his grandfather. He studied business at Al Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt. After returning to Nigeria, he borrowed money from his uncle, Sanusi Dantata, to start his trading business, and moved to Lagos, the country's commercial center.
Although his family background gave him contacts and early capital, Dangote built the industrial group largely through his own decisions, including the risky choice to commit heavily to manufacturing in a country where infrastructure, power supply and regulation were frequent obstacles. He remains president and chief executive of the Dangote Group and continues to drive its major projects personally.
Dangote Foundation and public life
The Aliko Dangote Foundation, established in 1994, is the main vehicle for his philanthropy and has grown into one of the largest private charitable foundations in Africa. It focuses on health, nutrition, education and economic empowerment, and it has funded emergency relief after floods and other disasters in Nigeria.
The foundation has worked closely with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on polio eradication in northern Nigeria and on routine immunization and child nutrition programs. Nigeria was declared free of wild polio in 2020, and both foundations had supported the vaccination campaigns that led to that result. Dangote has also funded hospitals, university facilities and programs offering small grants to women in poor communities.
Dangote is one of the most visible business figures in Africa. He has served on the boards of international organizations and he regularly speaks about African industrialization and trade. His career has also drawn criticism, with some arguing that his businesses benefited from import restrictions and close ties to government, which he has defended as policies that support local industry.