Dangote: The richest man in Africa

Dar es Salaam. Opinions are deeply divided over violence which rocked Mtwara and recent move by authorities to tout the $16.1-billion investment in gas and another $500-million cement plant.

The investor is the Nigerian self-made business magnate, Mr Aliko Dangote, who is ranked by the Forbes magazine as 43rd richest person in the world and first in Africa.

His arrival in Mtwara last Monday came barely a week after residents of the town took to streets to protest against Energy and Minerals ministry 2013/14 budget estimates in which the government maintained its stand that nothing would stop the planned construction of a 532-kilometre gas pipeline from the town to Dar es Salaam.

Since the project was announced, the residents of Mtwara are in tug-of-war with the government. They want the project to be executed in Mtwara so that it could create jobs for their youth and boost the economy of the coastal town.

In the recent clashes, three people, including a pregnant woman were killed, and at least three houses and scores of cars were set ablaze.

The government has been repeatedly informing the residents that a number of local and foreign companies have expressed interest to invest in the region, and their demands will, in the course of time, be met.

Dangote’s cement plant is expected to be accomplished in 22 months and once it becomes operational, it will produce three million metric tonnes annually. It will also provide thousands of jobs for the locals.

Cement, for the last three decades has been the backbone of Aliko Dangote’s rise to the top from the humble beginnings. It all started in 1978 then aged 21, when he received a loan of N500,000, about five million Tanzanian shillings, from his maternal uncle, Mr Abdulkadir Sanusi Datanta.

“At that time (1978), you could purchase ten Mercedes Benz cars with that amount as each was sold for N5, 000 while a Volkswagen Beetle went for N900 to N1, 000. The money was quite a substantial amount then. The loan was supposed to be paid back whenever I was okay-maybe after three or four years. But, I paid the loan back within six months,” recalls Mr Dangote.

With the money at hand, Mr Dangote started building his fortune by trading in commodities like cement, flour and sugar. He delved into full production of these items in the early 2000s.

As of 2011, cement, is estimated to account for about 80 per cent of his business. Dangote Cement, a subsidiary company of Dangote Group, is Africa’s largest cement producer.

According to the company, they have set a goal of becoming one of the world`s leading cement companies by 2016, and embarked on investing more than $4 billion in new capacities in Nigeria and 18 million tonnes of production and import capacities across Africa.

The company’s investment in the continent stretches from Nigeria, Cameroon, Senegal, and Gambia to South Africa, Zambia and Ethiopia, to name just a few. In fact, the amount of money the company is going to spend on the Mtwara plant, $500 million is, according to Forbes, only $20 million short of net worth of Tanzania’s richest person and second in East Africa, Mr Said Salim Bakhressa, whose fortune is estimated to be $520 million.

Mr Dangote hails from business family - he is great grandchild of legendary Hausa trader Alhassan Datanta. His maternal grandfather, Mr Sanusi Datanta, was the first Nigerian millionaire - he took him into his care after the death of his father, Mr Mohammed Dangote, who was also a businessman and politician.

Mr Dangote said this about his family riches: “I don’t like to boast, but…I was born into money. Both from my mother’s and father’s side -they have always had money. So, it’s not that I just came and picked up something from this thing. But it does not mean also in the family that everybody would be rich. I don’t know any of my family members -both from my mother’s side and my father’s side -that has ever had a deal with anybody in the government”.

The assertion that his family is free from making deals with government officials is not something that every Nigerian accepts. His maternal family has been close to all governments of Nigeria. Mr Dangote played a frontline role in the funding of Obasanjo’s re-election campaign in 2003, to which he contributed over N200 million ($2 million). He gave N50 million ($0.5 million) to the National Mosque under the aegis of “Friends of Obasanjo and Atiku”, and contributed N200 million to the Presidential Library.

Mr Dangote, however, downplayed criticism that his relationship with people holding power is for securing his business empire through the back door.

“I am close to the people in power because I am one of the big businessmen in Nigeria. If we have the wrong people there, then all the money I have is useless. I do not want Nigeria to become another Zimbabwe, so I am concerned about the political direction of my country, because if bad and inexperienced politicians control power in Nigeria, my wealth may turn into poverty and I am not ready to become a poor man,” he said.