Aliko Dangote is the richest African in history. His great-grandfather, Alhassan Dantata was at the time of his death in 1955, the richest man in Africa. Dangote is highly revered and respected in Nigeria and Africa broadly as a model businessman. How does he do it?

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Dangote's wealth was made from his holding Company Dangote Group founded in 1977, after receiving a $500K loan from his uncle. Today his companies have interests in practically every sector of the Nigerian economy: cement, foodstuffs, textiles, plastics, and property leasing...

Simply put, Dangote's fortune is derived from his family's wealth, connections & proximity to Nigerian politicians. One needs to only look at how in every industry his Group operates in, it has been able to go from no production at entry to top producer in relatively no time.

Dangote Group started refining sugar in 1999, but within a decade it was producing almost 100% of all Nigerian sugar. In 5 years, Dangote went from not importing any cement manufacturing inputs, to importing 4 million tons a year - that's 40 percent of Nigeria's cement industry

Like most Nigerian businessmen, Dangote was simply a trader until he decided to venture into manufacturing, the same year Olusagun Obasanjo became president of Nigeria and Dangote became one the president's trusted advisors and funders. Suddenly...

The govt started banning imports from Dangote's competitors, port authorities halted their imports, while Dangote Group was using sharp price cuts to undercut competitors and drive them out of business, then being granted exclusive importing rights to rice, sugar & cement

Dangote himself has admitted to being friends with several presidents of Nigeria and having enjoyed lucrative tax breaks. Dangote has continually benefited from high tariffs & bans on imported items all areas which he has businesses in

The Nigerian government id historically reluctant to privatise it's state-owned entities, however Dangote was quick to win the bids to buy out and privatise Benue Cement along with Savannah Sugar, while also getting his own private ship berth at state-owned Apapa port in Lagos

According to a leaked U.S govt memo, because of their influence in the Hausa and Muslim communities, Dangote's family has "enjoyed [govt] favoritism in the form of importing rights throughout the military regimes and coups of the 1980s and 90s"

The leaked memo lists Dangote along with money laundering and corruption, as "arguably one of the key factors making Nigeria a politically and economically volatile country and a risky place to do business"

Of course, the Americans would prefer it if Dangote were not around and they had the Nigerian market all to themselves, however Dangote has the Nigerian economy virtually all to himself, which at best is a hindrance to progress in that country

To any African who has any designs of making it big in business, it's really easy - find yourself a wealthy and politically connected family, get a few million dollar loan from them and you're good to go

Source: https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/05LAGOS362_a.html https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nigeria-dangote/special-report-in-nigeria-a-concrete-get-rich-scheme-idUSBRE88913U20120911