Fact-Check: Did Dangote Come to Lagos with Nothing 45 years ago? 

Fact-Check: Did Dangote Come to Lagos with Nothing 45 years ago? 

Claim: Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos has claimed that the Chief Executive Officer of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote came to the state 45 years ago with nothing, but has successfully built the biggest economic empire in Africa.

Full Text: Sanwo-Olu stated this while speaking at the commissioning of the largest single-train refinery in the world built by Dangote in Lagos.

The Lagos governor who commended Dangote for the establishment of his refinery in Nigeria, particularly Lagos said, “The first story is about a young Nigerian 45 years ago and you see the coincidence in the story. 45 years ago, who came to Lagos, all the way from another mega-city, Kano, who saw the prosperity, the diversity of our country, who came with nothing but in 45 years has built the biggest empire in the world for Africa.”

The refinery located at Dangote Industries Free Zone, Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos, is expected to process crude oil grades from the continent of Africa, Asia and America, with a delivery of a surplus of close to 38 million litres of petrol, diesel, kerosene and aviation fuel for Nigeria daily.

The refinery is also expected to refine 650,000 barrels of crude oil per day and transforms crude oil into different usage of petroleum products such as diesel, gasoline, jet fuel and kerosene.

Verification: A Desktop research by PRNigeria fact-check desk reveals that Aliko Dangote was born into a wealthy family in 1957, he grew up in Kano Nigeria. His great-grandfather, Alhaji Alhassan Dantata was at the time of his death, the richest man in West Africa. His grandfather Sanusi Dantata 

Further research reveals Dangote’s mother, Mariya was the eldest daughter of Sanusi Dantata, a major groundnut merchant who was at a time the richest man in Kano. PRNigeria obtained a picture of Dangote with his grandfather Sunusi Dantata and his uncle Hassan Sunusi Dantata standing beside a family’s jet.

His father, Mohammed Dangote was a politician and businessman before he died in 1963. Aliko was brought up by his maternal grandfather, Sanusi Dantata where he learnt that in Nigeria, “politics and business are closely related” 

Meanwhile, credible journals also report that Dangote started his career by working as a store manager for his grandfather. In 1976, he established his own business specialising in cement and commodity trading. This was done with a loan from his grandfather of a total sum of N500,000.00 which is equivalent to over N350m in Nigeria today. This business venture proved to be extremely profitable, making it possible for him to pay back the loan within three months. 

Ever since, the venture has grown in leaps and bounds with a presence in at least 17 African countries and is a market leader in cement on the continent. One of the Group’s subsidiaries, Dangote Cement Plc, is the largest listed company in West Africa and the first Nigerian company to join the Forbes Global 2000 Companies list.

In an April 2014 interview with the Times Magazine, Dangote affirmed that he started with a loan from his uncle and built the most successful locally-owned business conglomerate in Africa.

In explaining how his venture grew, Dangote told Times Magazine that, “I always tried to move up the food chain. I started with cement, and then moved into textiles, and banking. When I was trading sugar, I added salt and flour, so that then we could do pasta. And then I thought, why not make the bag for it too? So, we started making packaging.”

In September of the same year, Dangote was featured on Aljazeera where he revealed that he was able to pay back the N500,000 loan in three months because “business was good.” 

Aliko Dangote has been the richest man in Africa for ten years in a row, with a net worth of around $13.5 billion. Dangote’s fortune is primarily built from his company, Dangote Cement, although he started his business empire by selling commodities such as sugar, salt, and flour.

Conclusion: findings by PRNigeria reveal that the Chief Executive Officer of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote came to Lagos State 45 years ago with a  N500,000 (equivalent to over N350,000,000 today) seed capital from Alhaji Sunusi which he used in growing the Dangote Group that is now the largest business conglomerate in Africa. 

PRNigeria, therefore, concludes that the claim by Lagos state Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu that the Chief Executive Officer of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote came to the state 45 years ago with nothing, is MISLEADING and FALSE.

By PRNigeria