DANGOTE, THE MONEY DOUBLER

Dangote, now the 25th world richest man

It’s amazing how people turn peanuts into millions of monies in return. Nigerian billionaire and Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote is obviously one of such. He started with a business loan of =N=500,000 (Naira) given to him by his uncle when he was just 21 years old.

But today, he has been named the Africa’s first $20 billion man, thereby becoming one of the top 25 richest men in the world.

Dangote, the President/Chief Executive of the pan-African conglomerate, the Dangote Group, has become the first African entrepreneur to lay claim to a $20 billion fortune as the stock value of the flagship of his holding, Dangote Cement, leaped just about three-fourths since March, when Forbes last released its annual ranking of the world’s richest people.

With a current market cap of $20.5 billion, Dangote Cement becomes the first Nigerian company to achieve a market capitalization of over $20 billion.

The world renowned business and financial intelligence news magazine, the Forbes has reported that Dangote’s 93 per cent stake in the cement company is now worth $19.5 billion.

With this, Dangote is richer than Russia’s richest man,Alisher Usmanov, richer than India’s Lakshmi Mittal and running neck and neck with India’sMukesh Ambani. He is catching up to such Americans as Google’s billionaire founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

Who says one can’t make good fortune in this country of ours? When we fix our eyes abroad, as though they are the only places where things happen. He even made a clear assurance of successes in Nigeria during an interview, when he said;

"Nigerians can be even bigger than me, " he said "you just have to believe that yes, there is a future in this country of ours and I can tell you right now, I don't believe we have even started doing anything in Nigeria because the opportunities are so enormous. I don't even know where to start.

"Let me tell you this and I want to really emphasize it...nothing is going to help Nigeria like Nigerians bringing back their money. If you give me $5 billion today, I will invest everything here in Nigeria. Let us put our heads together and work." That’s the sermon for the day.