President of the pan-African conglomerate, the Dangote group, Aliko Aliko Dangote, has been named among the 50 world most influential personalities by Bloomberg, the renowned United States (U.S.) based news media with bias for business and financial news reporting.
The group of personalities chosen by the Bloomberg Market, consisted of CEOs, world leaders as well as religious leaders. As expected, Barack Obama, Angela Merkel and Pope Francis made the list with Dangote on number 41.
According to Bloomberg, those on the list “build companies and assemble fortunes. They
run banks, or hope to disrupt them. They shape economies and spread ideas. They manage money and wield the clout that goes with the billions of dollars they invest”
The Bloomberg said of him; “Aliko Dangote, Founder, Dangote Group. 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.”
A piece written by Paul Wallace, a reporter with the media outfit, said “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.
Earlier on Monday, speaking at the Financial Times Africa Summit in London, Dangote expressed confidence that Nigeria would weather the oil shock that has decimated government revenues if it steps up a fight against corruption.
He was reported to have been emphatic that the Africa’s most populous country would grow. “Nigeria’s GDP won’t stagnate,” said Mr. Dangote, adding; “We will have a short term shock but people should remember the Nigerian economy is resilient and huge.”
Dangote said if the government of President Buhari continued its crackdown on corruption, the near 50 per cent oil price collapse in the past year would be mitigated.
He was speaking on stage to Financial Times editor, Lionel Barber, at the opening session of the FT Africa Summit 2015.
“The government Organizations has also suffered a lot of leakages so when oil was $100 a barrel we weren’t seeing all that revenue collected,” Mr. Dangote said.
“If the government collects all its taxes and duties I think we will be okay. We will not have as much as we had before but it will be okay.” Dangote said.
