When Young Entrepreneurs Hosted Africa’s Richest Man, Aliko Dangote

Chairman, Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, who the Forbes Magazine, America’s foremost business periodical publication sometime ago announced as Africa’s richest man was recently hosted to a roundtable discussion by Young African entrepreneurs among which are Nigerians. SEYI GESINDE reports.

Dangote

Africa’s richest man and business mogul, Aliko Dangote was recently hosted to a roundtable talk by young African entrepreneurs in Lagos in the last episode of MTV Base Meets with... MTN. MTV is an American music television channel transmitting from New York, United States.

Dangote was recently named by United States’ Forbes Magazine as the richest man in Africa and the 51st richest person in the world with a net worth of $13.8 billion.

At the programme, the 54-year-old business magnate told the young entrepreneurs about the secret of success, beginning with his humble beginning in 1977.

He made them know that all was not well from the onset – that it was not a bed of roses. He had to secure a loan from his rich uncle and what he sowed then with that little amount has now grown to become Africa’s largest business conglomerate – Dangote Group.

Dangote, though started small, but now controls a business empire which boasts 12,000 employees. His business initiatives cover cement production, sugar manufacturing and transportation services, while he also has interest in oil and gas, banking, textiles and real estate.

Among the four young entrepreneurs Dangote, spoke with at Eko Hotel, Lagos, venue of the programme, is an investment banker, a Nigerian and Masters in Business Administration (MBA) student, J.G. Ayodele.

Others with him are Zimbabwean-born United States-based public administration and master’s degree student, Farayi Chipungu; a photographer, Yomi Black; another Nigerian and a Liberian singer, Jerrilyn.

On every episode of MTV Base Meets…with MTN, African youths were given the opportunity to meet, speak with and ask questions from Africa’s political, cultural and business leaders.

In the last editions of the programme, successful personalities in the world, among which are the music legend, Hugh Masekela; United Kingdom’s businessman, Richard Branson; Nigerian media guru, Ben Murray Bruce; South African politician, Julius Malema; Liberia’s president and a Nobel prize winner, who is the first and only Africa’s female president, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and Rwandan president, Paul Kagame had at a time been interviewed by Africa’s young entrepreneurs.

Forbes Magazine had said that “the Nigerian businessman’s fortune surged 557 per cent in the past year, making him the world’s biggest gainer in percentage terms and Africa’s richest individual for the first time.

(A).Farayi , (B). Yomi , (c). Ayodele , (D). Jerrilyn

“The catalyst was listing Dangote Cement, which integrated his investments across Africa with his previously public Benue Cement; it now accounts for a quarter of the Nigeria Stock Exchange’s total market cap.

“Already the continent’s biggest cement maker, he has plants under construction in Zambia, Tanzania, Congo and Ethiopia and is building cement terminals in Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast and Liberia, among other places.

“Dangote, who recently bought himself a $45 million Bombardier aircraft for his birthday, has been shuttling back and forth to London for months, in anticipation of a public offering there later this year.

“Dangote began his career as a commodities trader; built his Dangote Group into a conglomerate with interests in sugar, flour milling, salt processing, cement manufacturing, textiles, real estate, and oil and gas.”