Top 10 billionaires in Africa and how they made their money

Aliko Dangote (Net worth: $10.3 B)
Aliko Dangote’s journey to fortune is not a rag to riches story. He came from a wealthy family that was able to provide financial assistance to start his business. Regardless of this, he deserves credit for carving a niche of greatness for himself by becoming independent and staying away from family business to set up his own. Over the years, Dangote has expanded into new business segments, including telecommunications, real estate and steel manufacturing. Today his holding company, Dangote Group, is the largest conglomerate in West Africa.

At a very early age, Dangote took interest in entrepreneurship. He took a huge loan from his rich grandfather to start his small trade in cement business and later joined his uncle, “Usman”, who had formed solid ties with the military government and got rice importation deals in 1970.

When Murtala Muhammad came into power, his uncle was one of those awarded government contracts to decongest the Nigerian Seaport in Lagos and made a huge fortune from the contract. During the Shagari regime, there was an unprecedented importation of essential commodities and products. As at then, Dangote’s company, known as Alco, was a major importer. He also supplied huge tonnage of cement to government.

When the Shagari government decided to pay more attention to the construction of Abuja, the proposed new federal capital territory, Dangote cement was on point at that time. He incorporated two companies in 1981. These as well as other companies makeup the conglomerate known as the “Dangote group”.

Aliko Dangote also invested in other commodities like salt, sugar, cotton, millet, vegetable oil, cocoa and textile. One of Aliko Dangote’s business strategies for succeeding in the commodity market was to develop a strong distribution network and make the delivery of his goods faster than that of his competitors.