Africa’s wealthiest man and President of Dangote Group, Aliko
Dangote and the Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of
Finance, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, were on Wednesday named among the100 most
influential persons on earth by the TIME Magazine.
Bill Gate, Microsoft Founder and Co-Chair, Bill and Melinda Gate
Foundation wrote a tribute in honour of Dangote in commemoration of his
listing by the magazine.
Gate dwelt extensively on the philanthropic gestures of the business
mogul in the areas of health especially polio eradication and job
creation efforts.
While Gate was lavish in his praises of the timely response of Dangote
to the need for a health alliance by the private sector, Buno a lead
singer of U2 and a co-founder of One and (RED) wrote the tribute for
Okonjo-Iweala.
Gates, described him as a man who does good in addition to doing well.
According to him, “… his business activities drive economic growth
across the continent. That’s impressive, but I know him best as a leader
constantly in search of ways to bridge the gap between private business
and public health. It’s for that reason he helped create the Nigeria
Private Sector Health Alliance. And it’s for that reason he is an
advocate for agricultural research and malaria control.”
Aliko was classified in the Titans category which boasts of eminent
world personalities like Hillary Clinton, former USA Secretary of State,
Jeff Bezoz, Tony Fadell, Janet Yellen among others. Those in the
Pioneers category include: Jason Collins, Natalie Massenet, Mary Jo
White, Edward Snowden, among others.
Barbara Brown Taylor, Robin Wright, John Green, Kerry Washington were
in the Artists category among others, while Jerry Brown, Ngozi
Okonjo-Iweala, John Kerry and Angela Merkel were among those in the
Leaders category.
In the Icons category were Pope Francis, Alice Waters, Marina Abramovic, Cristiano Ronaldo and Carl Icahn, among many others.
Time 100 is an annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world assembled by the American news magazine TIME.
First published in 1999 as the result of a debate among American
academics, politicians, and journalists, the list is now an annual
event.
Although appearing on the list is often seen as an honour, TIME makes
it clear that entrants are recognised for changing the world, regardless
of the consequences of their actions.
Aliko had earlier been listed as the 64th most powerful person in the
world by the Forbes Magazine. Aliko was born on the 10th of April 1957
in the ancient city of Kano, Nigeria. He owns the Dangote Group, which
has interests in commodities, cement, petrochemicals, fertiliser among
many others. The company operates in Nigeria and 14 other countries in
Africa, as of March 2014, he had an estimated net worth of $25 billion
Dangote is ranked by Forbes Magazine as the 23rd richest person in the
world and the richest man in Africa. He surpassed Saudi-Ethiopian
billionaire Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi in 2013 by over $2.6 billion to
become the world's richest black man.
On the 14th of November 2011, Dangote was awarded Nigeria's second
highest honour, Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON) by the
President of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan. He has also been awarded the
highest National award in two other African countries: The Republic of
Benin and Kenya. He remains the single largest private sector investor
in South Africa.
Dangote reportedly added $9.2 billion to his personal wealth in 2013,
according to the Bloomberg Index, now making him the 30th richest person
in the world in their ranking, in addition to being the richest person
in Africa.
He debuted on Forbes billionaires list in 2008 with a $3.3 billion fortune.
Over the last six years, he has added $21.7 billion to his net worth
thanks largely to the incredible success of his crown jewel, the
publicly-listed Dangote Cement, which has a market cap of $24 billion
and has operations in 14 African countries.
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