Encomium
Dangote Group is now worth $21 billion (N3.36 trillion). This was the revelation made by Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote at a public forum recently in Kenya. This disclosure affirmed his rating as the biggest manufacturer of consumer goods in sub Sahara Africa.
Dangote’s business interests include sugar, salt, pasta, beverages, oil and gas, fertilizer, telecommunication and real estate. Only recently, the mogul raised a loan of $3.3 billion from a consortium of banks to build a refinery and petrochemical complex. The entire venture would cost $9.5 billion with $3.3 billion in equity coming from Dangote Group and the remaining $6.2 billion to be raised in loan capital.
Part of his business interest that makes up the $21 billion empire claim will be his cement plants which are churning out metric tonnes now and then. Dangote has cement plants in Obajana, Kogi State, reputed to be the one of the largest cement plants in the world. The Ibeshe cement plant is worth $1 billion not to talk of the one in Gboko, Benue State.
He is already taking over the continent of Africa in terms of cement production with plants in Tanzania, South Africa, Liberia, Senegal, Cameroun, Congo and some other places.
Aliko Dangote’s Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc is the largest in sub Saharan Africa. The sugar refinery in Apapa, Lagos, is rated the second largest in the world. There is another of such in Adamawa and in Algeria which employ a lot of people.
He (Dangote) is also the king of salt production. He owns about 62 percent of the shared capital of National Salt Company of Nigeria Plc. The company produces refined salt for industrial and domestic use. Other businesses this salt company does include importation and selling of Petit brand of tomato puree. Dangote Floor Mills is one of Nigeria’s largest. The company started from its Apapa, Lagos, mill and expanded by opening in quick succession three other flour mills in Kano, Calabar and Ilorin, Nigeria.
The billionaire is also making a lot of money from macaroni, Dansa Fruit juice and Mowa Water, all produced under Dangote Group. The Dangote Pasta plant churns out over two million cases of spaghetti every day.
Also Dangote Noodles Limited, which started operations in 2008 has, no doubt, become one of the most sought after products under the Dangote Group. There are three Noodles factories in Ikorodu, Calabar and Kano. According to checks, the three factories alone are worth $2.1 billion.
Among the companies under the Dangote Group include the Agros Sacks Company, on Oba Akran Avenue, Ikeja, Lagos and at Obajana, Kogi State. The two companies produce poly propylene sacks for the repackaging of Dangote products such as salt, sugar, cement and floor.
Presently, he has put in place machinery to erect another cement plant in Kenya. He is investing all of $400 million in the venture. His telecommunications venture is also in the pipeline and according to the General Manager, Corporate Communications, Dangote Group, Mr. Sunday Esan, who spoke with ENCOMIUM Weekly on Saturday, September 14, 2013, “I am not aware of where he said his Group is worth $21 billion but the truth is that I cannot doubt him because he takes more risks than any other Nigerian business man. For instance, the cement business that everybody is running away from, he ventured into it and he made success out of it. He has the biggest fertilizer company in Edo State, and only recently he raised $9.5 billion to build the biggest refinery in Nigeria, if not in Africa. Don’t be surprised if he becomes the richest man in the world one day”.
From a N500,000 loan from his uncle, Aliko Dangote traded in commodity goods. That was after he left Al-Azhar University in Egypt where he bagged a degree in Business Studies, buying trucks and importing goods such as cement.
Born in Kano to a family of prosperous merchant, Aliko Dangote is the richest man in Africa and 43rd in the world with a net worth of $16.1 billion.
– FOLUSO SAMUEL
