The President, Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has been named among the 50 world’s most influential personalities by Bloomberg, the renowned United States-based news media with bias for business and financial news reporting.
On Dangote, Bloomberg stated, “Africa’s most successful businessman built his fortune in sugar, textiles and cement in his native Nigeria, where today he’s a political as well as a financial power broker. He’s expanding in other countries and may list his cement company in London.”
Paul Wallace of the media outfit wrote, “Dangote is feted like royalty. He has businesses ranging from cement to sugar to energy in a dozen sub-Saharan countries. He’s a fixture at elite gatherings such as the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. No African has ridden the continent’s halting march out of poverty toward potential prosperity as spectacularly as its richest person, the Nigerian industrialist, Aliko Dangote.
“Dangote’s clout extends beyond the boardroom and the high-flier dinner circuit. In March, as votes were tallied in Nigeria’s presidential election, Dangote, 58, served as an intermediary between the camps of the incumbent, Goodluck Jonathan, and the ultimate winner of the election, Muhammadu Buhari.”
“There’s no question that he is quite an exceptional person—not only in Africa but globally,” says Mark Mobius, chairman of the emerging-markets group at Franklin Templeton Investments.