Aliko Dangote Biography: Early Life, Career, Business, Awards, Wives, Children & Net Worth
Aliko Dangote GCON (born April 10, 1957) is a Nigerian businessman best recognised for his leadership responsibilities at Dangote Group and Dangote Refinery. In 2011, President Goodluck Jonathan named him to the economic management team. Globally, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index and Forbes, he is the 91st richest person and the wealthiest Black person, with a net worth of about $31.9 billion as of February 2026.
Dangote launched the Dangote Group in 1977, a tiny commodity trading company that imported sugar, salt, and other supplies. In 1981, he formed Dangote Nigeria Limited and Blue Star Services, both of which import rice and bulk goods such as steel and aluminium.
Following the firm’s massive sales and strong demand for cement, Dangote established Dangote Cement, which faced competition from Lafarge, a French cement production company noted for importing cement into African countries at the time.
As of 2023, Dangote Cement had generated over $3.7 billion in revenue, and Dangote Sugar Refinery was recognised as one of Nigeria’s and Africa’s major sugar producers.
Dangote’s political activity and beliefs have made him a well-known person in Africa. He is also noted for his influence on Nigeria’s economy; as a result, Goodluck Jonathan appointed him Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger in 2011 and he was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most important people in 2014.
Aliko Dangote Biography
Aliko Mohammad Dangote was born on April 10, 1957, to Mohammed Dangote and Mariya Sanusi Dantata, a rich Muslim family from Kano State. He is the great-grandson of Alhaji Alhassan Dantata, the wealthiest African at the time of his death in 1955.
His mother, Mariya (née Dantata), was a wealthy businesswoman and philanthropist. His father, Mohammed Dangote, was also a businessman who owned a transportation company. Aliko had three siblings: Sani Dangote, a businessman who died of colon cancer; Bello, who died in a 1996 plane disaster with Sani Abacha’s son; and Garba, who died in 2013 of a stroke.
Dangote’s family had a strong business presence. His maternal great-grandfather, Alhassan Abdullahi Dantata, was the wealthiest man in West Africa until he died in 1955. Throughout his business career, Alhassan imported kola nuts from Ghana and exported groundnuts internationally.
Dangote’s father died in 1965, and he dedicated his inheritance to charity. He considers his maternal grandfather, Sanusi, and his maternal uncle, Usman Amaka Dantata, to be important parental figures in his life.
Aliko Dangote Education
Dangote received his primary education at Sheikh Ali Kumasi Madrasa before graduating from Capital High School in Kano. He received his secondary education at Government College, Birnin Kudu, and graduated in 1978.
After finishing high school in Nigeria, he moved to Cairo, Egypt, to attend Al-Azhar University. He earned a bachelor’s degree in business studies and administration before returning to Lagos to pursue entrepreneurial opportunities.
Career
Dangote returned to Nigeria in 1977 after completing business studies at Al-Azhar University, an Islamic university in Cairo. His uncle gave him a loan to start a business that handled commodities and business supplies, especially cement.
By 1981, his company had grown so large that he had incorporated other enterprises to form the Dangote Group. His empire included culinary products such as pasta, sugar, salt, and wheat, as well as cement, transportation, and other businesses.
His assets included Dangote Industries Ltd., Dangote-Bail Nigeria Ltd., Dangote Cement PLC, Benue Cement Company PLC, Dangote Sugar Refinery PLC, Dangote Flour Mills PLC, and Nascon Allied Industries PLC. In addition to its interests in Nigeria, the Dangote Group operates in several additional African countries.
Dangote was involved in several ambitious projects, including the development of a huge oil refinery in Lagos state. He pushed the project in 2013 in an effort to alleviate Nigeria’s gasoline crisis, which, despite being a major oil producer, had to import the majority of its refined petroleum products.
Dangote developed a fertiliser plant and a power station on the same location. After several years of delays, the refinery—Africa’s largest—opened in May 2023, however it was not completely operational.
The refinery’s production capacity of 650,000 barrels per day was expected to drastically transform Nigeria’s energy sector by removing the need for imported petroleum while producing extra for export.
Furthermore, the project created a large number of temporary and permanent jobs during the construction phase and after completion. Dangote’s economic prowess made him very wealthy.
In 2008, he made his debut on Forbes magazine’s annual list of billionaires worldwide. When Forbes published its annual list of Africa’s 40 richest people in 2011, Dangote was ranked first. Since then, he has consistently ranked on both lists, as well as other, comparable measurements of wealth in Africa and around the world.
Dangote came under fire in 2016 after his name appeared in the so-called Panama Papers, which revealed the identities of individuals tied to offshore shell firms. He was personally linked to four of these companies, while his family and business associates were linked to at least 13.
Dangote is well-known for his humanitarian work. The Dangote Foundation was established in 1994 to support his philanthropic efforts; in 2018, it was renamed the Aliko Dangote Foundation (ADF).
The foundation has made significant efforts to alleviate childhood malnutrition. It has also helped to battle viruses that cause polio, Ebola, and COVID-19. Furthermore, the charity has offered disaster relief.
Aliko Dangote Businesses
Aliko Dangote started Dangote Cement, a division of Dangote Industries, in 1981. It was founded as Obajana Cement Plc in 1992 and later renamed Dangote Cement Plc in July 2010.
The company began by importing cement into the Port Harcourt and Apapa terminals, but later made the strategic choice to establish full-time manufacturing.
The cement is well-known for its quality, and it is used by many organisations and individuals throughout Africa for construction projects.
Sugar Refining
Dangote Industries Limited entered the sugar sector in the 1970s, importing sugar for sale. Today, the firm operates the Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc in Apapa, Lagos State. Dangote sugar comes in 50kg, 1kg, 500g, and 200g packets.
Salt Refining and Seasonings
NASCON Allied Industries Plc manufactures edible and industrial salt sold under the brand name “Dangote Salt”. The salt comes in retail quantities of 250g, 500g, and 1kg sachets.
Flour and Semolina
Dangote Flour & Semolina is produced by Dangote Flour Mill, which began operations in 1999 as a branch of Dangote Industries Limited. DFM has mills throughout Nigeria, including Apapa, Ikorodu, Ilorin, Kano, and Calabar. The company also makes pasta and ball foods.
Packaging Materials
Dangote Agro Sacks Limited manufactures packing bags for the convenience of transporting items manufactured by group enterprises. Each month, the company manufactures around 36 million bags.
Property Management Dangote Group controls assets through MHF Assets Limited, which was created in 2011. The company is a service-oriented organization that specialises in the management and development of luxury properties.
Technology
Dancom Technologies Limited is one of Dangote’s investments. The company offers IT services to the group. Port operations Aliko Dangote also invested in Port Operations, which provides terminal operations, stevedoring, bulk cargo handling, and containerisation.
Food and Beverages
Dansa Foods Limited, one of Dangote’s related groups, produces bottled water and juices on the group’s behalf. Transportation Dantrans Limited conducts transport monitoring for Dangote Groups using advanced GPS systems.
Refinery and Petrochemical
The Group invests in a major integrated refinery and petrochemical project, Nigeria’s largest industrial complex to date.
Fertiliser and Agriculture
Dangote Group is currently building a fertiliser plant that will be Africa’s largest. Dangote will also work with smallholders and contracted rice farmers to cultivate rice paddy and sugarcane.
Infrastructure
Dangote Groups and Andrade Gutierrez (AG) Group have an ongoing relationship known as AG – Dangote. AG is a leading infrastructure conglomerate in South Africa. Automotive Dangote Group is establishing a vehicle assembly plant in Lagos to produce 10,000 trucks annually. The capital outlay totals $100 million.
Gas Pipelines
The Group has partnered with First E&P to launch the East West Offshore Gas Gathering Pipeline System (EWOGGS). This is the single largest gas infrastructure investment in Nigeria’s history.
How did Aliko Dangote Become Rich?
Unlike many of today’s billionaires, Dangote made his money in fundamental consumer commodities such as cement, fertiliser, sugar, and oil refining, all of which require billions of dollars and long-term investment. The increase in his fortunes provides a new model for wealth building. He began with simple trading and later expanded into manufacturing.
Awards and Recognition
Goodluck Jonathan nominated Dangote as a part of his economic management team in 2011. In 2017, he denied running for Nigerian president in the 2019 election and served on Muhammadu Buhari’s special advisory council for reelection.
Dangote has collaborated with the Gates Foundation on public health issues. In August 2014, he gave 150 million naira to support the Nigerian government’s Ebola treatment and prevention efforts.
In May 2016, he promised $10 million to help Nigerians afflicted by the Boko Haram crisis. In March 2020, he gave 200 million naira to stop the spread of COVID-19 across Nigeria.
Dangote is a supporter of the English football team Arsenal FC and expressed interest in purchasing the club in 2019. In 2020, he donated to Nigeria’s Ministry of Sports to help restore the Moshood Abiola National Stadium in Abuja.
In 2011, Dangote received Nigeria’s second-highest honour, the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger, from President Goodluck Jonathan. He also received the Nigeria Employers Consultative Association’s 2021 Lifetime Achievement Award. He also got it in 2023.
Other notable awards include:
- In 2011, he was the first Nigerian to debut and be profiled on the Forbes World’s Billionaires list.
- 2012 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award
- 2024 Sabistation Business Owners Awards
- 2024 recipient of the National Order of the Lion by President Macky Sall
- 2022 recipient of the Order of Merit of Niger award by President Mohamed Bazoum
- Economic Confidential’s CEO of the year, 2024
- In 2020, Dangote’s group won the CNN commercial award
Aliko Dangote Wife
Dangote has four children: three daughters and an adopted son named Abdulrahman. According to our investigation, unlike Dangote, his wives dislike publicity, which may explain why there is little information about them in the media. In 1977, at the age of twenty, he married his first wife, Zainab, whom his parents chose based on local norms. The couple has two daughters: Maria and Halima. They later divorced, but the exact date is unknown.
On an undisclosed date, he married Mariya Muhammad Rufai, the daughter of the previous Bauchi State Commissioner for Women Affairs and Human Services. This couple had one daughter, Fatima. The marriage ended in divorce in 2017.
Aliko Dangote Net Worth
The Bloomberg Billionaires Index estimates Aliko Dangote’s net worth at $31.9 billion. This year, his wealth has increased by $1.89 billion, with a recent daily gain of $50.8 million. Dangote Oil Refinery, Africa’s largest refinery, began operations in early 2024 and has become his primary source of revenue.
