Dangote, the Richest African

Sun, Nov 25, 2012

By publisher

2 MIN READ

For the second year running Aliko Dangote, Nigerian entrepreneur has emerged as the richest man in Africa with assets and cash worth about $12 billion

|  By Ishaya Ibrahim  |  Dec. 2, 2012 @ 12:11 GMT

FOR two years running, Aliko Dangote, 55, has remained the richest man in Africa. The recent rating of billionaires in Africa by Forbes magazine shows 16 billionaires in the continent and Dangote stands atop them all. According to Forbes, Dangote is self-made, making money from his investments in cement, sugar and flour. He is reputed to be worth about $12 billion through a concrete empire.

The fortune rating magazine is not just impressed with Dangote’s dexterity in making money, but more with his charity works through which he gives back to society. In the wake of the flood that ravaged many cities in Nigeria, killing at least 360 people and left more than two million people homeless, Dangote gave N2.5 billion to the relief effort. His words: “We should give while we are alive and also when we are young and capable. Sometimes, we need to have the genuine experience of deprivation and poverty in order to appreciate the need to be our brother’s keeper.”

Apart from giving his own money, Dangote, as co-Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Flood, also helped to raise money from other billionaires and corporate organisations.

Dangote was born on April 10, 1957 in Kano, and now lives in Lagos. He read Business Studies at the Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt. On November 14, 2011, President Goodluck Jonathan awarded Dangote Nigeria’s second highest honour, Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger, GCON.