Aliko Dangote: Africa’s richest person

Summary

Good Bad Billionaire: Aliko Dangote – Africa’s Richest Person

Episode Release Date: September 30, 2024
Hosts: Simon Jack, BBC’s Business Editor & Zing Singh, Journalist, Author, and Podcaster
Podcast: Good Bad Billionaire by BBC World Service

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Introduction

In this episode of Good Bad Billionaire, hosts Simon Jack and Zing Singh delve into the life and legacy of Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest person and the world’s richest black billionaire. They explore how Dangote built his empire, his business strategies, relationships with political figures, philanthropic efforts, and ultimately assess whether he is a "good," "bad," or "just another billionaire."

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Early Life and Background

Aliko Dangote was born in 1957 in Kano, Nigeria, into a wealthy and entrepreneurial family. His grandfather was the richest man in West Africa in the early 20th century, engaging in nut trading and expanding into real estate and haulage businesses. Dangote’s father passed away when he was nine, leading to his upbringing by his grandfather.

From a young age, Dangote exhibited a keen business sense. As a child, he sold sweets in bulk to other children, taking a cut of their profits—a glimpse into his future entrepreneurial endeavors. He graduated from Al Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt, in 1977 with a degree in business studies and subsequently joined his uncle’s cement business in Lagos, Nigeria.

Notable Quote:
Zing Singh [02:35]: “Nobody will come and develop this economy, but only us. And when we start, the others will see and then they will follow.”

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Building the Dangote Group

In 1978, at the age of 21, Dangote founded the Dangote Group with a N500,000 loan from his grandfather—a substantial amount at the time. Initially, the company focused on cement trading, sugar, salt, flour, and fertilizer. By the early 1990s, the Dangote Group dominated the markets it operated in, controlling approximately 30% of Nigeria’s stock exchange market value.

Dangote strategically avoided the oil industry, deeming it too corrupt. This decision proved beneficial when oil prices plummeted in 1982, allowing him to sidestep significant financial losses. Instead, he diversified into trading and later manufacturing, capitalizing on Nigeria’s trade liberalization policies in 1986 to expand his business across various sectors and African countries.

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Monopolistic Practices and Political Ties

Dangote expanded his empire by acquiring state-owned enterprises during Nigeria’s privatization wave in the 1990s. Notably, in 1996, he acquired 40% of the National Salt Company of Nigeria, and in 1997, he invested in the National Fertilizer Company—both monopolistic ventures.

His close ties with political figures, particularly President Olusegun Obasanjo, who won the 1999 presidential election, were pivotal. Dangote donated N120 million ($1.3 million) to Obasanjo’s campaign, resulting in favorable business opportunities post-election. This relationship facilitated the construction of one of Africa’s largest cement plants, funded with $319 million of his own money and a $479 million bank loan from the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation.

Notable Quote:
Simon Jack [07:12]: “The Nigerian government has been very supportive of Dangote. We know the company at one time or another held exclusive import rights in sugar, cement, rice, using such advantages to do volume business and undercut competitors.”

However, these monopolistic practices drew public criticism. In 2000, a group named SWEM Collective publicly criticized Dangote for his dominating presence in the sugar and salt industries. Comparisons were made to Russian oligarchs who amassed wealth by cornering markets post-USSR.

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Philanthropy and Social Impact

Despite criticisms of monopolistic behavior, Dangote has made significant philanthropic contributions. In 1993, he established the Dangote Foundation, the largest private foundation in Sub-Saharan Africa, with an endowment of $1.25 billion. The foundation focuses on reducing malnutrition and disease across the continent.

Collaborations with global figures like Bill Gates highlight his commitment to social causes. In 2013, Dangote and Gates pledged $43 million to eradicate polio through immunization efforts, contributing to Africa being declared free of the wild polio virus by 2020. In 2016, they pledged an additional $100 million to combat malnutrition in Nigeria.

Notable Quote:
Simon Jack [33:36]: “He started the Dangote foundation in 1993. It's the largest private foundation in Sub Saharan Africa with an endowment of $1.25 billion, mainly focused on reducing malnutrition and disease.”

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Personal Life

Dangote maintains a relatively private personal life despite his immense wealth. He has been married twice, both marriages ending in divorce, and has three grown daughters, two of whom work within the Dangote Group, as well as an adopted son. Known for his modest lifestyle, Dangote reportedly owns 25 luxury cars and a 33-meter yacht named "Tina." He prefers driving himself to meetings and is known for his disciplined approach to wealth, often advising others to save their money.

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Assessments and Scoring

Simon Jack and Zing Singh evaluate Dangote across several categories:

1. Wealth:

   • Score: 7/10
   • Rationale: Dangote is Africa’s richest person and the world’s richest black billionaire, with a net worth surpassing $13 billion. However, compared to global billionaires like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, his wealth is substantial but not unparalleled.

2. Rags to Riches:

   • Score: 2/10
   • Rationale: Coming from a wealthy and business-savvy family, Dangote’s ascent wasn’t a typical rags-to-riches story. His family’s established wealth and his early exposure to business provided a significant advantage.

3. Villainy:

   • Score: 5/10
   • Rationale: While Dangote has faced allegations of monopolistic practices and benefiting from political connections, he denies being a monopolist and emphasizes his role in promoting self-reliance in Nigeria’s economy. Opinions are divided, placing him squarely in the middle.

4. Philanthropy:

   • Score: 7/10
   • Rationale: With substantial donations and a significant endowment through the Dangote Foundation, Dangote has made meaningful contributions to health and nutrition in Africa. However, he hasn’t committed to pledging over half his fortune, as seen with other philanthropists like Bill Gates.

5. Power:

   • Score: 8/10
   • Rationale: Dangote wields considerable influence within Nigeria and across Africa, maintaining strong connections with political leaders and global figures like Bill Gates. His presence in influential circles underscores his powerful status.

6. Legacy:

   • Score: 9/10
   • Rationale: Dangote’s efforts to make Nigeria self-sufficient in critical industries like cement and oil refining have left a lasting impact on the country’s economic landscape. His vision for Africa’s economic independence positions him as a pivotal figure in the continent’s development.

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Final Verdict: Is Aliko Dangote Good, Bad, or Just Another Billionaire?

Decision: Good

Despite criticisms regarding monopolistic practices and political affiliations, Dangote’s commitment to developing Nigeria’s economy and his extensive philanthropic efforts tilt the scales in favor of viewing him as a "good" billionaire. His dedication to fostering self-reliance and substantial contributions to public health and nutrition underscore a positive legacy, positioning him as a business leader focused on Africa’s growth and prosperity.

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Conclusion

Aliko Dangote exemplifies a complex billionaire narrative, blending shrewd business acumen with significant philanthropic efforts. While his monopolistic dominance and political ties invite scrutiny, his contributions to Nigeria’s economic independence and social welfare present a compelling case for his classification as a "good" billionaire. Dangote’s journey highlights the multifaceted nature of wealth, power, and responsibility in shaping a continent’s future.

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Next Episode Preview:
The hosts tease their next episode featuring Whitney Wolfe, the co-founder of Tinder and creator of Bumble, exploring her rise to becoming the youngest self-made female billionaire in US history and the subsequent challenges that led to the loss of most of her fortune.

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Produced by: Hannah Hufford, Mark Ward, Tamsen Curry, James Cook
Senior Podcast Producer: Kat Collins
Podcast Commissioning Editor: John Mannell

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If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review Good Bad Billionaire, and share your favorite episodes on social media to help others discover these intriguing stories.

Transcript

[Simon Jack]

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the uk.

[Michael Lewis]

Hey there, it's Michael Lewis, author of Going Infinite Moneyball, the Blind side and Liars Poker. On the latest season of my podcast, against the Rules, I'm exploring what it means to be a sports fan in America and what the rise of sports betting is doing to our teams, our states and ourselves. Join me and listen to against the Rules on America's number one podcast network, iHeartradio. Open your free iHeart app and search against the Rules. Listen to against the rules on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

[Zing Singh]

Welcome to Good Bad Billionaire from the BBC World Service. Every episode we pick a billionaire and we find out how they made their money.

[Simon Jack]

Then we judge them. Are they good, bad, or just another billionaire?

[Zing Singh]

I'm Zing Singh and I'm a journalist, author and podcaster.

[Simon Jack]

And I'm Simon Jack. I'm the BBC's business editor.

[Zing Singh]

And on this episode we have someone who is Africa's richest person by quite a long shot.

[Simon Jack]

A title he has held for 13 years in a row. He's 67 years old, he's the world's richest black billionaire.

[Zing Singh]

And his name is Aliko Dangote. And he made his money as one of those kind of classic industrialists you just don't really hear about anymore.

[Simon Jack]

Yeah, kind of an old fashioned industrial story. He started out trading cement and he made his fortune through sugar, salt, flour and fertilizer.

[Zing Singh]

And together all his companies make up a whopping third of Nigeria's total public market value, which, Simon, I think you should probably explain.

[Simon Jack]

Okay, so if you think of the American Stock Exchange, the S&P 500, the 500 biggest companies in America, the biggest one of all is Microsoft. That makes up about 7% of the S&P 500, roughly the same as Apple, which is around 7%. So huge companies, they make up 7%. His companies make up 30% of the Nigerian stock exchange, if you like, of the publicly traded Nigerian companies. So he accounts for an enormous huge chunk of the market value of Nigeria.

[Zing Singh]

And understandably, that's also laid him open to allegations that he monopolizes everything. Right?

[Simon Jack]

Yeah, he's basically got a huge share of very large industries. The Dangote Group is one of the biggest employers on the entire continent of Africa.

[Zing Singh]

And we can actually listen to him speaking to the BBC in 2014, discussing his role in developing not just Nigerian, but African industry.

[Aliko Dangote]

You know, nobody will come and develop this economy, but only us. And when we start the others will see and then they will follow. But if you turn it the reverse while we will sit down. We expect foreigners to come and develop our economy in Africa. It will never ever happen. So we need to take charge and that's what we've done actually.

[Simon Jack]

And that sense of African self reliance has made him incredibly popular. That's a, that's a message that people really want to hear and it's paid off for him. He's currently worth around $13 billion.

[Zing Singh]

Now having said that, he does insist on living a relatively simple and unflashy life. So for instance, he often drives himself between meetings and if you see him.

[Simon Jack]

In interview, I've watched a couple of them. He's a pretty mild mannered, un flashy guy. There's not much bling about him at all.

[Zing Singh]

Although he does indulge sometimes. So he has 25 luxury cars. He's got a 33 meter yacht which is named after tiny.

[Simon Jack]

33 meters, are you kidding?

[Zing Singh]

Yeah, that's not right.

[Simon Jack]

100Ft long. Honestly, he's not going to get very far in the billionaire stakes with a 33 meter yacht.

[Zing Singh]

No, by billionaire stakes, that's like rowing a pedalo around. Right.

[Simon Jack]

He's got private jets for different occasions. And his journey to riches though has been helped along the way by some big political players.

[Zing Singh]

And that has sometimes left him open to allegations of corruption.

[Simon Jack]

But we'll dig into it a bit deeper. Is Aliko Dangoti good, bad or just another billionaire? Let's go back to the beginning.

[Zing Singh]

So Aliko was born in 1957 in Nigeria's second largest city, Kano, an ancient trading center in what is predominantly the Muslim north.

[Simon Jack]

Yeah, and if you think historically he was three years old when Nigeria gained independence after over a century of British colonial rule.

[Zing Singh]

So his childhood took place in what was quite a tumultuous time for the country. That included the civil war which was between 67 to 70, followed by a succession of military dictatorships and brief democratic civilian governments.

[Simon Jack]

But Aliko was fortunate. He had the stability of a pretty wealthy family on his mother's side. His great grandfather traded nuts with Western companies in the early 20th century and was actually the richest man in West Africa at the time of his death. This is not a brags to riches story by any means.

[Zing Singh]

No, he's definitely not coming from nothing. And Aliko's granddad had actually built on this empire to become the top ground nut trader in Nigeria in the 60s alongside picking up real estate and haulage businesses. So this is a family that's very.

[Simon Jack]

Well off, actually, and steeped in commerce and trading. When aliko was just nine years old, his father died. And so he was actually raised by his grandfather.

[Zing Singh]

But at primary school, he showed a very distinct flair for business, which, you know, does actually pop up quite a lot in some of so often there's.

[Simon Jack]

So many of them started their sort of entrepreneurial career when they were kids.

[Zing Singh]

Yeah. He was buying sweets in bulk and then gave them to other children to sell, Delegating and then taking a cut of their profits. I mean, I don't think I understood what taking a cut of anything meant when I was that age.

[Simon Jack]

Yeah. He said, when you're raised by an entrepreneurial parent or grandparent, you pick up that aspiration. It makes you much more aggressive to think that anything is possible. Again, that's kind of familiar territory, isn't it, for our billionaires? Yeah.

[Zing Singh]

And I just want to say, if you're a parent and you realize your child is selling sweets on the playground.

[Simon Jack]

Yeah.

[Zing Singh]

They could be the next billionaire.

[Simon Jack]

Yeah. In 1977 at Aliko graduated from al azhar university in cairo, egypt. He got a degree in business studies.

[Zing Singh]

Of course, and then he joined his uncle, who was running a cement business. This will become very important in Nigeria's largest city, Lagos.

[Simon Jack]

Yeah. He said that he squatted in his uncle's office and learned all about cement trading and haulage. And this was the right place, right time to get into the cement business. As the Lagos cement market was frenzied, following something called the cement armada, A period in history I must say I was not familiar with. But it's a fascinating story.

[Zing Singh]

Oh, yes. I mean, cement armada doesn't exactly scream glamour, but we'll give you a quick primer on exactly what went down. So oil had been discovered in Nigeria in the 1950s. So after the civil war ended in 70, the Nigerian government were basically very enthusiastic to spend some of that oil profit on infrastructure and defense. You know, these big budget projects.

[Simon Jack]

So the government ordered 20 million tons of cement to be imported within just 12 months.

[Zing Singh]

That's a lot of cement. And understandably, it required a lot of ships to come and deliver that cement.

[Simon Jack]

Hence the armada.

[Zing Singh]

Exactly. So there were 420 ships. Oh, my gosh, that is a lot of ships queuing for months out of Lagos harbor. Some of them were anchored. They had to wait up to a year to unload. Some of them just full on sank.

[Simon Jack]

And some were even prey to pirates. Must say, that doesn't sound like the best organized importing exercise I've ever heard.

[Zing Singh]

No. It's a bit like organizing a birthday party and telling everyone to turn up at exactly the same time.

[Simon Jack]

So all this meant that some of the concrete degrade traded. The importers who had imported it didn't have a usable product. And actually this event was studied as a key moment of government corruption, as these contracts were handed out without any checks and balances. So it's not just disorganized, it's sort of slightly underhand.

[Zing Singh]

The result of the armada, however, was this huge demand for good concrete that hadn't degraded, that it got through the armada. And it was in this boom that Aliko was starting his career in concrete.

[Simon Jack]

Yeah. And just remember, Nigeria in the 1970s was becoming a very vibrant place for a young man. It become the wealthiest country in Africa thanks to that oil. Over two decades, government revenue had increased from just 200,000 naira to 3.7 billion. That is a 1.8 million percent increase. So it is boom time in Nigeria.

[Zing Singh]

And Lagos's population doubled in the 1970s. You know, this nightlife grew to serve the new workers arriving. It became known as a party town. Music and culture was flourishing.

[Simon Jack]

So there were domestic sort of stars you may have heard of Fela Kuti, but also international musicians like Stevie Wonder came along to play. And according to a friend, after working hard all day, Aliko would enjoy some late night house parties. So he knows how to relax.

[Zing Singh]

Olasugan Edeniyi, a journalist for all African news website, reported that he was also a gambler. So he said, I have been told that Dangote was so consumed by gambling that he could spend hours without eating just at the gambling table. So he spends picking up a few bad habits.

[Simon Jack]

Yeah. On a trip to Mecca, a politician friend asked Dangote to stop gambling. And that friend was reported to have said, promise me on this holy ground, you will never gamble again.

[Zing Singh]

That's quite the ultimatum, I would say. Aliko had also seen some of his relatives completely fritter away all their fortunes. So a business associate has also said that Aliko watched another uncle fall from gambling and that it put fear in him.

[Simon Jack]

Yeah. So Aliko vowed not to gamble and apparently hasn't done since.

[Zing Singh]

So he's a young man in a growing economy with a big, big talent for business.

[Simon Jack]

And after learning a cement trade from his uncle, Aliko decided to start his own company.

[Zing Singh]

And he was young at this point in 1978, only 21. And he asked his granddad, the one who raised him, for a loan to start what he called The Dangote Group.

[Simon Jack]

Yeah. He loaned him five hundred thousand naira. In Aliko's own words, five hundred thousand naira at the time sounds small, but I think a Mercedes used to be 5000 naira. So he gave me the money for 100 Mercedes. Quite helpful to give you sense of the scale of the loan.

[Zing Singh]

Definitely. And he didn't spend it on Beamers. He actually used it to buy cement to trade. And he used a truck borrowed from his uncle.

[Simon Jack]

Yeah, he was working seven days a week. He said things moved very, very fast, much more than my expectation. And in fact, instead of paying his grandfather's loan back in three years, he returned it in less than six months.

[Zing Singh]

But competition was soon coming because after a few profitable years, everyone was trying to get in on this cement action and the market had become flooded.

[Simon Jack]

So he decides to pivot to diversify. He moved into trading food items like flour, salt, pasta, fish and other soft commodities.

[Zing Singh]

So what do you think of this move from a kind of business sense? It makes sense. Right.

[Simon Jack]

So this is like an old fashioned industrial conglomerate. Things like, you know, flour, salt, pasta, cement, fish. These are early stage in the economic development of a country and a society. These are the things will do well.

[Zing Singh]

These are the things that people want and they need.

[Simon Jack]

Yeah. And if you have lots of different businesses, that's smart because it means you've got a diversified portfolio so you spread your risk. So it's a smart move because you're protecting yourself basically against risk in different sectors of the economy. But funnily enough, unlike many traders at the time, you'd think that if you wanted to get rich in Nigeria around this time, the obvious thing to get into would be oil. But he didn't do that.

[Zing Singh]

No, he actually felt that as an industry it was too corrupt. He said if we'd followed the trend of dealing in oil, it would have tainted our name. People would think you've made this money because you did a lot of unethical deals in the oil industry.

[Simon Jack]

And actually it was a good strategy not to go into oil because in 1982, oil prices dropped very sharply in Nigeria thanks to a worldwide oil glut. So he was well out of that one.

[Zing Singh]

And then in 1986, his company got what he described as one of the major breaks for us, Nigeria entered the trade liberalization policy era.

[Simon Jack]

Yeah, this is essentially the government introducing incentives to boost non oil exports. And again, in an effort to diversify Nigeria's economy, economy and its income away from just oil, create greater integration into the world economy. To the rest of the continent as well. And at this point, Aliko focused his business. He said, instead of importing everything like we used to, we concentrated on a few items, mainly sugar, rice, frozen fish, and we just kept expanding and expanding.

[Zing Singh]

That meant importing sugar from Brazil, rice from Thailand. He was selling them locally at a huge markup. And by the early 1990s, Dangote Group was dominating the markets that they traded in.

[Simon Jack]

So you could say it's right place, right time, or perhaps you make your own luck. There's an old saying that goes, luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. That's attributed to Seneca.

[Zing Singh]

Well, I'm sure lots of billionaires would like to think that they prepared themselves for the exact right moment to make their fortunes. But I do think some of it is just luck, isn't it?

[Simon Jack]

I think so. And some people do admit that. Anyway, he's the right place at the right time, and he's making tons of money. Difficult to know exactly how much money he's making because his company was private.

[Zing Singh]

So his business was built with seed capital from his family, expanded with profits generated from these sales. He says at the height of importing, he was making US$10,000 in profit a day, which in one year would work out to three and a half million.

[Simon Jack]

In his own words, the company was creating an awful lot of cash. He was born rich. Remember that. He probably made his own first million in the early 1990s from importing. I think we can comfortably say that in the early 1990s, Aliko is a millionaire. He himself is in his mid thirt.

[Michael Lewis]

Hey there, it's Michael Lewis, author of Going Infinite, Moneyball, the Blind side and Liars Poker. On the latest season of my podcast, against the Rules, I'm exploring what it means to be a sports fan in America and what the rise of sports betting is doing to our teams, our states and ourselves. Join me and listen to against the Rules on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Open your free iHeart app and search against the Rules. Listen to against the rules on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

[Zing Singh]

Aliko is a millionaire thanks to importing into Nigeria, but it's unlikely he will get to a billion that way.

[Simon Jack]

Yeah, so how does he get from a million to a billion? After several visits to Brazil from where he'd been importing sugar, he'd begin to see that country change. It became more prosperous thanks to its growth in manufacturing. So after one trip to Brazil in 1990, five, he resolved to shift his company away from just importing and trading to actually processing and manufacturing stuff in Nigeria.

[Zing Singh]

Right. So just making things, but you know, it's not like manufacturing was a low risk kind of endeavor. Right. So he had to cope with an ailing power grid, political instability. He was competing with cheap imports coming from Asia.

[Simon Jack]

But again, perhaps luckily, history and politics are on his side. Because during the 1990s, the Nigerian government had begun to privatize state owned enterprises in an attempt to improve services and take the burden off the government. In the UK during the 1980s there was a big wave of privatization. Things like British Gas, British Telecom, some of the water companies towards the end of the 80s were spun off. And the idea was that private capital could come in and take some of the burden also perhaps do it more efficiently than sort of bloated government structures. That was the idea anyway. And the other thing is that if you are not responsible for things like British Gas or the water companies, whatever, then when it comes to budget time, when the Chancellor has to decide who to give money to, then it's going to be very hard for, let's say a water company to compete with, with the NHS or education or defense. So if you give these industries to other people to look after, it simplifies the job of government. That's the argument anyway.

[Zing Singh]

That's the argument. And when it comes to working in practice sometimes, well, as we see in the UK now with some of our own failing water companies, it doesn't always work out so well.

[Simon Jack]

But let's follow Aliko in his acquisition spree because in 1996 he acquires 40% of the national Salt Company of Nigeria, which was the only salt refining company in West Africa. Like many privatized industries, he's basically inheriting a monopoly.

[Zing Singh]

And then in 1997, he bought into the state owned National Fertilizer Company of Nigeria and the Dangote Group manufacturing grows rapidly. So he builds flour mills, a pasta factory, a sugar refinery. And very quickly this refinery was producing 90% of the national demand for sugar.

[Simon Jack]

Pretty monopolistic, understandably.

[Zing Singh]

With that growing business success and wealth, he was also becoming an important figure in Nigeria.

[Simon Jack]

Yes. In the mid-1990s, a US diplomatic memo reported on his movements, noted him as a businessman to watch. They drew attention to his houses not just in Kano and Lagos, but also in London and Atlanta. And according to a State Department cable unearthed by WikiLeaks, the Nigerian government has been very supportive of Dangote. We know the company at one time or Another held exclusive import rights in sugar, cement, rice, using such advantages to do volume business and undercut competitors.

[Zing Singh]

And when they say volume business, is that essentially saying that you produce so much volume of that you can afford to sell it cheap?

[Simon Jack]

So I think what that leak is sort of hinting at or saying is that he's getting favorable treatment from government and that allows him a very competitive advantage and means that he can do business on better terms than some of his competitors and use that monopoly to his advantage.

[Zing Singh]

Important, however, to say that Aliko completely denies this, but it was the election of a certain politician that was going to create a billion dollar break for him and create that fortune.

[Simon Jack]

Yes. In 1999, he publicly donated to the winning presidential campaign of General Olusogan Obasanjo, the former military ruler and someone Aliko had known for decades.

[Zing Singh]

He donated 120 million naira, which was roughly $1.3 million at the time. And he talks openly about how the president helped him supercharge his business from days after the 1999 election.

[Simon Jack]

Yeah, he says, obasanjo called me very early in the morning and says, can we meet today? And the new president asked him why Nigeria couldn't produce cement instead of having to import it.

[Zing Singh]

And Aliko explained that it was more profitable to trade than to produce, basically because of the lack of infrastructure in the company.

[Simon Jack]

You need tons of energy to create cement. And Nigeria did not have a very stable electricity grid network or what have you. So those were some of the problems of doing stuff like that in Nigeria.

[Zing Singh]

But he didn't suggest, you know, building a new power grid. He suggested that if imports were restricted, production would become worthwhile. To businessmen like him, that's an interesting.

[Simon Jack]

Way of doing trade. So basically, if you hamper imports, you will make it more expensive. You know, you'll make the manufacturing worse. That's not how trade is supposed to work.

[Zing Singh]

So Aliko vowed to build one of the world's largest cement plants if the government restricted the flow of cement through the country's ports.

[Simon Jack]

So this is clearly a very cozy relationship he's got with the government here. He put up US$319 million of his own money. There was a Bank loan of 479 million, and that was enough to build a cement factory. And that was led by the World Bank's International Finance Corporation. Bank is a big international institution which specializes in financing development in countries that need it.

[Zing Singh]

So that is a lot of money. So both for him to invest, it's personally risky, but also a massive loan from Banks. So they obviously trusted him to pull off the project.

[Simon Jack]

The chief executive of West African Investment bank said Aliko working with him as a bank is extremely challenging. If you don't know his business at an extremely detailed level, you don't stand a chance. He will unravel you in seconds. He doesn't suffer fools gladly. Interesting insights.

[Zing Singh]

However, that growing dominance meant that he was facing up to public criticism, especially for buying up all those former state owned enterprises.

[Simon Jack]

Yes, he's already bought into two. And in 2000, he made a bid to buy the Bennu Cement Company from the Nigerian government.

[Zing Singh]

And soon after that, a group that called themselves SWEM Collective put out a full page advert in a Nigerian national paper attacking him for bidding.

[Simon Jack]

Yeah, it didn't name him directly, interestingly enough, but it mentioned a wealthy and influential Kano businessman and criticized how his activities have crippled crippling effects on sugar and salt production in the country.

[Zing Singh]

And in 2007, just before the President Obasanjo administration came to an end, refineries were sold to a consortium comprising of Dangote and others in what was seen as a fire sale approach.

[Simon Jack]

So basically his big buddy Albasancho, just before he switches out the lights on his way out, sells off a bunch of other assets to his old pal Aliko Dangote. So there were public protests about this, there were concerns the consortium were buying up all the choice assets in the country.

[Zing Singh]

And at the time, All Africa news site actually drew comparisons with Russian oligarchs with connections in the Kremlin, as they put it, cornering economic wealth and assets in Eastern Europe after the fall of the ussr.

[Simon Jack]

Yeah, it reminded me a little bit of Russia and some of those huge things like steel, cement, oil interests which ended up in the hands of a few very influential people. And that happens, that is still happening to this day.

[Zing Singh]

But despite all this criticism, Liko kept on making money. And he was making this big money through a route that will be further familiar to listeners on this podcast.

[Simon Jack]

The ipo, the initial public offering. This is when you sell shares in the company that you own to the general public and you means that you can list on a stock exchange it gives you a currency because then you know kind of how much the company is worth. And if you want to raise additional money, you can create some more shares and you can sell some more shares. So he began partially listing some of these divisions on the stock market.

[Zing Singh]

So in 2007, Dangote Sugar debuted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. They sold 30% equity and raised 420 million.

[Simon Jack]

Okay, so they sold a 30% chunk of the company for 420 million. That means that that company, if 30% is worth 420 million, then 100% is worth over a billion. A year later, he floated his flour mills company. It raised $148 million.

[Zing Singh]

He also begun to expand manufacturing outside of Nigeria into at least half a dozen other African countries.

[Simon Jack]

So you don't need to be a genius at math to realize that with his successful trading, his profitable manufacturing, the money he's making from these IPOs. In 2000, Forbes, that's the American publication which ranks very rich people, they added Aliko Dangote to their billionaires list. So in 2008, he's made it. Aliko is a billionaire at that point. Forbes says his fortune is 3.3 billion.

[Zing Singh]

Now, interestingly, the Financial Times, another respected business publication based in the uk, felt this was too conservative. They actually quoted Nigerian estimates which suggested that with all the unlisted companies in his portfolio, Alika was actually worth at least $10 billion.

[Simon Jack]

But whether it's 3 point or 10 billion, he's on the list. He is a billionaire. He's made a billion from cement, from soft commodities. And this sets him apart from most of Africa's super wealthy industrialists, most of whom made their money from oil.

[Zing Singh]

But once he was a billionaire, he's got to spend it. So he finally entered the oil business and he started constructing an oil refinery outside Lagos.

[Simon Jack]

Yes, he explained that from 2010 we had no debt in our companies. So then we're thinking, what do we do with all of this cash? The only other area that could take us was the oil industry, where they can absorb that kind of money. Because in Africa, really, where do you go and put $9 billion of investment if it's factories for consumable items, you won't be able to handle it. So the one industry that can soak up his riches is the oil industry.

[Zing Singh]

It's quite a fascinating kind of thought process, right? Like what is the most expensive industry I can park all this cash in?

[Simon Jack]

Yeah. And this is ongoing as we speak, this investment, because in January of this year, a $20 billion mega refinery started to produce diesel. And although it has been dogged by problems over the last few months.

[Zing Singh]

So when this billion dollar mega refinery started operating, an oil and gas expert told Associated Press it will help move Nigeria from being a major importer of refined petroleum products to being self reliant in a domestic refining capacity. So helping them to stand on their.

[Simon Jack]

Own feet, that's exactly right. Because at the moment they basically, although they had oil, the refined product that you put in your car or use in diesel engines or what have you, the oil is going out of Nigeria and they're having to import, import the refined product back in.

[Zing Singh]

This is really interesting, right, because if you watch, I don't know, movies like There Will Be Blood, you kind of think to yourself, if you find oil in your country, you are basically getting a license to print gold. Like that is where the money is. But that really isn't what happens in real life.

[Simon Jack]

You certainly get rich by finding the crude oil, but a lot of the value is actually in refining. That down to things like petrol, aviation fuel, plastics as a byproduct. When you start breaking down the crude oil, there's lots of value in the little bits in it. And actually there's probably more value in that part of the chain than there is in the actual, you know, just shipping barrels of oil out of the back door. So lots of value to be had in the refining area, for example, which is why bringing it into Nigeria was seen as a really important moment because you're making that economic activity, you're creating that value within the country rather than shipping the basic product out only to import the refined product back.

[Zing Singh]

And presumably you're also creating jobs within Nigeria. Right, because you need to kind of fill these positions within a mega refinery.

[Simon Jack]

Exactly. And there's more jobs in refining than there is in actual sort of oil production. So in terms of economic value, you want to do your refining in your own country.

[Zing Singh]

It really reminds me of that quote that we heard from him early on in this episode about not going to the west, making sure you stay and develop in Nigeria, in Africa.

[Simon Jack]

Yeah, make stuff for yourself, keep that economic value within that the country.

[Zing Singh]

Now, we haven't mentioned very much about Aliko's personal life because he's actually been very private about it.

[Simon Jack]

But gossip sites suggest he married his first wife, Zeynab, in 1977 aged just 20, after his family arranged the marriage.

[Zing Singh]

We know that ended in divorce. He marries again, but his second marriage also ends in divorce.

[Simon Jack]

He's got three grown up daughters, two of whom currently work for the Dangote Group. Wonder how they managed to get hired. And an adopted son. He and his children are thought to be set to inherit their father's fortune.

[Zing Singh]

And it will be a huge Fortune because in 2012, Forbes named him Africa's richest person, a title he has held onto since then.

[Simon Jack]

He cemented his place in history. So now we come to the judging and we judge him on a variety of categories. We always start with just wealth.

[Zing Singh]

So he is the richest person in Africa, the richest black billionaire in the world.

[Simon Jack]

He said that one of his aspirations is to become the richest man in the world. That doesn't really sound like him, weirdly. But anyway, there we go.

[Zing Singh]

Several features, however, have described that he doesn't come across as a member of the super rich.

[Simon Jack]

Aliko is godfather to one of Nigeria's current biggest music stars, Davido. He said uncle Aliko is a different type of billionaire. He buys two cars every eight years. He's very disciplined. Every time I see him he just says one thing and one thing only. Save your money.

[Zing Singh]

I mean he sounds like every other uncle you've ever met in your life, which is quite sweet.

[Simon Jack]

I'd quite like to have an uncle who had $13 billion. Anyway, he scores pretty highly. I mean he's not at the top of the tree in of the 100 plus billion. That sound like the musks and the Bezos have. But I'd give him a solid seven.

[Zing Singh]

Yeah, I would give him a solid seven. I mean it's quite impressive to be the richest black person in history and.

[Simon Jack]

The richest person in Africa 13 years in a row. Pretty good.

[Zing Singh]

Yeah. Oh, maybe.

[Simon Jack]

Or pretty bad.

[Zing Singh]

Now you've talked me into increasing my score. I think he should be an 8 out of 10.

[Simon Jack]

Okay. It's a 7 for me because sometimes we talk about how people splash their cash and whether they if they're flamboyantly rich and he definitely doesn't do that. So I'm going to keep him at seven.

[Zing Singh]

Okay. Rags to riches is the next category. How far has he come? From humble origins.

[Simon Jack]

I don't think he's going to do well on this one. He's. His grandfather was richest man in West Africa. He lent him the money to start his business.

[Zing Singh]

He grew up steeped in business and entrepreneurialism.

[Simon Jack]

Yeah, he's got very rich. So there is a long distance he's traveled. But he started pretty rich. So I'm going to give him a two out of this one.

[Zing Singh]

Yeah, I think I would give him a two. He claimed clearly was born with what you might call a silver spoon in his mouth.

[Simon Jack]

Yeah. So two for rags to riches. Now on this one on villainy, I think there is an easy and lazy assumption when you talk about Nigeria to talk about corruption. But he doesn't seem to attract that kind of criticism.

[Zing Singh]

No, he just seems to have made a lot of shrewd business decisions alongside Being lucky.

[Simon Jack]

Yeah. We spoke in fact with a Lagos based BBC journalist who said while he's probably not a saint, very few very rich people are. He didn't see Aliko as a corrupt bad guy. He said he's a guy who had luck alongside some shrewd business moves and relationships. While he works the system, he basically stays out of politics. Although he was very good friends with President Obasanjo, which definitely helped him in his business career. This journalist we spoke to said he's a friend to everyone but belongs to no one.

[Zing Singh]

Interestingly, the Financial Times have said that his critics believe this modest manner that we've talked about masks the ruthless instincts of a monopolist ready to manipulate markets and milk political connections to force out rivals.

[Simon Jack]

Yeah, and monopoly is a word that's come up a lot. He bought state owned monopolies. He, if you remember, said that we could manufacture concrete here in Africa, in Nigeria, if we were to hinder imports. So you're gaming the system a little bit to preserve the power of your monopoly. So that's definitely a criticism that has been leveled at him.

[Zing Singh]

I actually would like to know, you know, this may sound like a very basic question, but why are monopolies bad in business? You know, because on one hand, you know, I'm sure there's a lot of younger people listening to this and thinking all he's done is kind of destroy the competition. Isn't that what you're meant to do in business?

[Simon Jack]

The problem with monopolies is twofold. Businesses can become inefficient if they don't have competition to compete against. So they become more expensive than they should be. They become more bloated organizations. They're not very efficient. And the other thing is, they often snuff out innovation. Monopolies don't tend to innovate as much as places which have competition.

[Zing Singh]

Right.

[Simon Jack]

They're not seen as good for an economy because it doesn't have that vibrancy.

[Zing Singh]

And also, I guess the costs are passed on to consumers. Right?

[Simon Jack]

Yeah.

[Zing Singh]

Because we're the ones who suffer if companies aren't innovative, if they hike up prices.

[Simon Jack]

Well, if I've got no choice, you can just dial up the price to me and I've got no option. Right. As simple as that.

[Zing Singh]

So in Aliko's defense, he's denied all these allegations of being a monopolist. He says we've been willing to put our money where our mouth is on a significant scale. We've seen the potential in the manufacturing sector in Nigeria and the rest of Africa and have grasped it when others were unwilling to do so.

[Simon Jack]

Yeah. Another excerpt from the Financial Times. He's unapologetic about the close relations he's cultivated with successive military and civilian administrations. He argues that anyone prepared to risk the kind of money he has in an environment where governments can prove so fickle and long term capital so hard to find is compelled to seek influence over policy.

[Zing Singh]

And there have been other accusations. In 2020, legal action was taken against the Dangote Group on behalf of people suffering from health problems that have been linked to his cement industry. So Le Mans, a French newspaper, interviewed a mechanic who lived near a cement factory who said despite the huge profit he makes from here, our neighbor's done almost nothing for us. The water's no longer drinkable. Two wells have been dug, but we eat dust. So we're still waiting for the progress the Dangote Group promised.

[Simon Jack]

Yeah, I mean there are wherever you have primary industries like this, whether it's mining, where it's cement manufacturing, it's a dirty business. That's not to defend any of this, but I think if you went to any cement factory, whether in Mexico or Brazil, you would find similar concerns around the surrounding environment and health. Like I say, it's not a very clean business.

[Zing Singh]

And then Gotte Cement. Agreed. It's important to note to pay a $270,000 compensation package for local people around there.

[Simon Jack]

Doesn't sound like a great deal of money, but there we are. There have also been accusations that he doesn't do enough for low income people in north Nigeria and concentrate his wealth in the south.

[Zing Singh]

So villainy, how do you think he scores on all of these fronts?

[Simon Jack]

He's been accused of being a monopolist. That's not good. That's not a good economic actor. Usually he says he put his money where his mouth is. He basically paid a lot of money to buy up previously nationalized industries. I think we took a dim view of that when it came to what happened in Russia after the fall of communism and all the oligarchs got rich. In a way he's a bit of an oligarch, but on the other hand he wanted Nigeria to be self sufficient. He said the west isn't going to come in and do stuff for us. We have to do it ourselves. And I think that deserves some credit. So I'm going to give him a five on villainy. Straight down the middle.

[Zing Singh]

Yeah, I would agree with straight down the middle, to be honest. In one sense you can kind of see where that Instinct to kind of buy up industries comes from. Right. Because it's very much the same instinct as someone who goes, I've got to do it because everyone else will just screw it up.

[Simon Jack]

Yes. Yeah.

[Zing Singh]

Just on a very, very large scale.

[Simon Jack]

Yeah. So you're going to go right down the middle as well.

[Zing Singh]

Yeah.

[Simon Jack]

Okay. Two fives for villainy. Philander, philanthropy.

[Zing Singh]

So Dangote would like to be known as the biggest philanthropist in Africa, in his words. He wants to use his voice to, quote, shape a better Nigeria and Africa as a whole.

[Simon Jack]

Yeah. He started the Dangote foundation in 1993. It's the largest private foundation in Sub Saharan Africa with an endowment of $1.25 billion, mainly focused on reducing malnutrition and disease.

[Zing Singh]

And in 2013, he joined forces with Bill Gates, one of our other billionaires. You can listen to his episode. To pledge $43 million to fight polio via immunization. And then by 2020, Africa was declared.

[Simon Jack]

Free of the wild polio virus.

[Zing Singh]

And in 2016, again with Bill Gates, they pledged 100 million to cut malnutrition in Nigeria. However, malnutrition is unfortunately on the rise, thanks to food inflation.

[Simon Jack]

Despite doing a lot with Bill Gates, though, he hasn't signed the giving pledge. That's where people pledged to give over half their fortune over the course of their life. Whereas four fellow African billionaires have, including someone we'll be covering this season, Patrice Motzepe, the South African billionaire.

[Zing Singh]

So where do you think he scores in philanthropy?

[Simon Jack]

I think pretty good. 1.25 billion in endowments. Remember his fortunes? 13 billion plus. He's given 100 million and another 43. That's well over 10% of his wealth. That scores better than some of our billionaires.

[Zing Singh]

And also, you know, there's clearly a method to his philanthropy. Right. He wants to improve health outcomes on the continent.

[Simon Jack]

Yeah. I'm going to give him a seven for philanthropy.

[Zing Singh]

Yeah, I think a seven. Seven out of 10 for me as well. You know, that's a very large endowment.

[Simon Jack]

Yeah. Power. That's one of the other categories we look at. He's definitely had some powerful contacts throughout his business career.

[Zing Singh]

So in a profile interview in the Financial Times, they said that he spent 15 minutes of President Obama. He has video conferences of Bill Gates.

[Simon Jack]

Yeah. Nigeria's former president Obasanjo, to whom he donated, said of Aliko, he hasn't just accumulated capital, he's accumulated success. And success begets success. So he's clearly a very powerful figure in Africa and in Nigeria and in Fact, I was just watching before we came on to record this, I watched him. He was up on a stage with Bill Gates, he was talking to David Rubenstein from Bloomberg. I think he'd be quite at home in the sort of Davos man setting, do you know what I mean? Putting the world to rights through their wealth and influence. So yeah, I would give him a, I'd give him a, I mean I give him a seven or eight. I don't know. What do you think?

[Zing Singh]

Oh, I think within Nigeria probably an 8. I would say people know who he is but outside of Nigeria, if you ask the average person on the street, they probably wouldn't have ever heard of him.

[Simon Jack]

Yeah, probably within Nigeria I'd give him a 9. And probably outside in world terms I'm gonna give him a seven.

[Zing Singh]

I'll give him a seven out of ten.

[Simon Jack]

Okay. Legacy. I think that that quote we heard from him was really powerful, wasn't it?

[Zing Singh]

You know, nobody will come and develop this economy, only us.

[Simon Jack]

So in terms of self reliance of a developing economy, I think that's pretty, pretty powerful. Clearly Nigeria is an economic powerhouse within Africa. It's going to be Africa's biggest oil refiner, not just producer oil refiner by 2025. He was fundamental to that.

[Zing Singh]

And you know, he's still got his sights set even higher this year in 20 he announced his next venture would be in steel manufacturing to ultimately ensure all steel products used in West Africa comes from Nigeria.

[Simon Jack]

And he's also said give us three or four years, Africa will not import any more fertilizer from anywhere. I think that's pretty powerful legacy really.

[Zing Singh]

Yeah. And it's interesting because one academic, Armelle Shoplin from the University of Geneva has said that young Africans now dream of becoming footballers or cement manufacturers. Manufacturers. He embodies success replacing the figure of the intellectual with a college degree who predominated in the 1980s. It's quite interesting when you literally make cement manufacturing a dream career. That is power.

[Simon Jack]

So I want to be a cement manufacturer or David Beckham. I'll go with the cement. That's quite something in the history of Nigeria's economic development. I'm going to give him a nine.

[Zing Singh]

Yeah, I would say actually.

[Simon Jack]

Yeah. Okay.

[Zing Singh]

When it comes to writing the history books of Nigeria, he's going to play quite a big part.

[Simon Jack]

Yeah, we'll give him a nine for that. So then we have to decide whether he's good, bad or just another billionaire.

[Zing Singh]

Ooh, this is an interesting one.

[Simon Jack]

He's made himself very rich. He's definitely prone to monopolistic practices. All of which.

[Zing Singh]

He's worked the phones.

[Simon Jack]

Yeah, he's worked the phones. He's had powerful political patronage at exactly the right time. So all that counts against him. But he has done great things for Nigeria's sense of being a master of its own economic destiny, to be more self sufficient in important things. I'm going to say he's good.

[Zing Singh]

I don't think he's a bad billionaire. I'm kind of torn between him just being yet another billionaire or just good. Because actually what really tips me over into just edging it into good territory is the fact that he's consistently over the years always said it's about developing Nigeria, it's about not relying on the west or international institutions. It's about doing it our own way. And that to me speaks to someone who at least has kind of principles about what he's doing.

[Aliko Dangote]

Right.

[Simon Jack]

Yeah, I would agree. Okay, so we both agree that Aliko Dangote is a good billionaire. Who have we got?

[Zing Singh]

Next episode we've got the $1 billion queen bee of dating apps, co founder.

[Simon Jack]

Of Tinder, creator of Bumble, the youngest self made female billionaire in US history.

[Zing Singh]

But it didn't last for very long.

[Simon Jack]

It's Whitney Wolfe heard find out how she made and then lost most of her billion dollar fortune. Good Bad Billionaire is a podcast from the BBC World Service. It's produced by Hannah Hufford and Mark Ward with additional production by Tamsen Curry. James Cook is the editor for the BBC World Service.

[Zing Singh]

The senior podcast producer is Kat Collins and the podcast commissioning editor is John Mannell. If you enjoyed this podcast, then please rate and review us. And why not tell people about your favorite episode on social media? It helps us to keep telling you these incredible stories.

[Michael Lewis]

Hey there, it's Michael Lewis, author of Going Infinite Moneyball, the Blind side and Liars Poker. On the latest season of my podcast, against the Rules, I'm exploring what it means to be a sports fan in America and what the rise of sports betting is doing to our teams, our states and ourselves. Join me and listen to against the Rules on America's number one podcast network, iHeart. Open your free iHeart app and search against the Rules. Listen to against the rules on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts.