Aliko Dangote was born in April 10, 1957. He is a stupendously rich businessman based in Nigeria. He is the owner of the Dangote Group, which has operations in Nigeria and several other countries in West Africa. Dangote Group of Companies is a testimony to great success of private entrepreneurship in managing the Nigerian economy. From modest beginning in the late 1970s, he has today built a multi million naira conglomerate. Dangote has many thing going for him. The right family pedigrees, hardwork, foresight and the resources to be a volume player.

Born in Kano, reputed for its groundnut pyramids, to Mohammed Dangote, a business associate of Alhassan Dantata, and Hajiya Mariya Sanusi Dantata, Alhassan's grand daughter. This rich business background provided the launching pad for Dangote. He started out understudying his uncle, Sanusi Dantata before setting up his own business in the late 1970s with a loan from his uncle. Dangote moved from Kano to Lagos where he participated in the massive importation and sale of cement needed for the country's development. Having cut his business teeth here and made his seed money, Dangote has never looked back till date. From his Osborne Road office in Ikoyi, Lagos, he directs a business that has diversified from its early concentration on commodity trading into banking, agriculture manufacturing, textile and transportation.

Dangote made his name in commodity trading especially sugar importation into Nigeria which he admits he controls over 60 percent today. Given the heavy demand by Nigeria's soft drink industry, breweries and confectionery industries for sugar, he makes a kill by doing volume business and gaining advantages to undercut competitors. Dispelling rumours of his cornering the market with the connivance of government support, he says it is an open market but because of his enormous investment in the business and his transport haulage business, he can distribute his sugar faster, cheaper and at a uniform prize nationwide which the competition cannot match. Dangote is reputed to have good investments even in foreign-based sugar refineries that supply him.

His business interest spans the export and import business. He exports cashew nuts, cotton, cocoa, millet ad textile. His extensive network enables him to source these commodities not only in Nigeria but the entire west coast of Africa where he is increasingly becoming a visible player. He also exports fish. Interestingly, he started out importing fish but when the local market proved difficult and less profitable, he diverted his supplies to the export market.

Dangote also imports and sells rice, vegetable oil, and cement. He employs similar strategies in the distribution of these commodities as in the sugar business. In December 1996, Dangote says, in response to a mandate from government, he imported and sold so much rice that the local market crashed by almost 80 percent. Right from the 1980s, Dangote decided to move from being just a successful commodity dealer to a more rounded entrepreneur with solid investments in finance and manufacturing.

He started out with Dangote General Textile Product which he acquired from its former owners thereby establishing control over the source of his trade. In 1993, he acquired controlling shares in the Lagos-based Nigerian Textile Mills. He invested enormous resources in re-capitalising, refurbishing its machinery and restructuring its management. And within a few years, he turned it from a loss maker back to its days of good profits. Looking beyond just making and exporting textile materials, the Dangote Group is exploring opportunities to manufacture jeans materials for the export market. Even in Sugar, Dangote currently has a joint venture with Pakistanis to set up a refinery in Nigeria to locally make sugar to cap his years of sugar business. Dangote bought 40 percent shares of the Nigerian Salt Company to broaden his investment portfolio and has three directors on the company's board to oversee his interest there. With this pep, National Salt is expected to become a strong contender for control of Nigeria's salt market.

The Dangote Group, originally a small trading firm founded in 1977, is now a Multi-Trillionaire naira conglomerate with operations in Benin, Ghana, Nigeria, and Togo. Dangote's businesses include food processing, cement manufacturing, and freight. Dangote Group has moved from being a trading company to Nigeria's largest Industrial group, including Dangote Sugar Refinery (the most capitalized company on the Nigeria Stock Exchange, valued at over $3 billion with Aliko Dangote's equity topping $2 billion), Africa's largest Cement Production Plant: Obajana Cement, Dangote Flour amongst others.

Dangote controls much of Nigeria's commodities trade through his corporate and political connections. With an estimated current net worth of around US$ 2.5 billion, he was ranked by Forbes as one of the richest black African citizens and the third richest person of African descent in the world behind Mohammed Al Amoudi ($9.0 billion) and Oprah Winfrey ($2.7 billion).

Jim Ovia is a co-founder and the pioneer Managing Director and Chief Executive, Zenith International Bank, Nigeria. He is also a member of the Nigeria Economic Summit Group and was recently elected President of the Nigeria Internet Group. His bank provides services in private and consumer and investment banking.

From practically nowhere, he has built the Zenith Bank to become the fourth most profitable bank in Nigeria in terms of a jumbo asset size of N68 billion, as well as ranking among the top four with the largest shareholders' funds of N15.674,368 billion. Total assets plus contingent liabilities is currently put at N215, 226,766 billion. With interests in e-commerce and information technology, Ovia's bank was the first Nigerian bank to register its presence on the internet. He has been at the forefront of delivering financial services electronically through the use of technology.

Only recently, Zenith Bank won Central Bank's recognition and approval as one of the few settlement banks in the country. According to industry watchers, it is a testimony to the bank's successes. Zenith is steered by a man who maintains a reticent public reserve but combines vigour, hard-work and excellence in pursuit of his goal.

He is the Chairman of the Nigeria Software Development Initiative (NSDI) and also Chairman, National Information Technology Advisory Committee [NITAC]. He is a member of the Governing Council, Nigerian Investment Promotion Council [NIPC] and also a member of the Honorary International Investor Council.

Jim Ovia is a member of the Governing Council of Lagos State University, Lagos and also a member of the Board of Trustees, Redeemer's University For Nations, Lagos. He is the proprietor of the proposed University of Information and Communication Technology, Agbor, Delta State; he served on the board of American International School, Lagos [2001 -2003].

Jim Ovia headed various Non-Governmental Organisations [NGO] at various times including being the first President of the Nigeria Internet Group [2001-2003]; member, Tsunami Disaster Relief Committee and co-ordinator Nigerians United To Save Niger Republic [NUSAN].

He is the founder and Chairman of Mankind United to Support Total Education (MUSTE), a philanthropic organization focused on providing scholarship for the less privileged, of which some of the beneficiaries are now qualified Medical Doctors, Lawyers, Engineers etc.

Jim Ovia is also the founder of the ICT Foundation for Youth Empowerment, which focuses on improving the socio-economic welfare of Nigerian Youths by inspiring and motivating them to embrace Information and Communication Technology. The initiative holds annual Youth Empowerment conferences.

In November 2000, Jim Ovia was conferred with the national award of Member of the Order of the Federal Republic (MFR) by the President, Federal Government of Nigeria. He had earlier received the Zik Award for professional leadership in April 1999. He was also conferred with the honorary degree of Doctor of Science [D.Sc) in Finance by the Lagos State University in October, 2005.

Jim Ovia has a Master's degree in Business Administration from the University of Louisiana, Louisiana, USA in 1979 and a B.Sc degree in Business Administration from Southern University, Louisiana, USA (1977). He is also an Alumnus of Harvard Business School (Executive Management Program).

Jim Ovia is a motivational speaker and has delivered speeches at several conferences. He has authored several published and unpublished works and he is in the vanguard of promotion and propagation of Information and Communication Technology in Nigeria.

(Courtesy: nigerianmuse.com, zenithbank.com, en.wikipedia.org)

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