Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, has shed light on his family background, early experiences, and the determination that shaped his rise to business success.

Speaking in a recent interview, Dangote acknowledged that, while he comes from a prominent and wealthy lineage, his accomplishments are the result of his own hard work and vision, rather than an inherited fortune.

“I came from a wealthy family. My late great-grandfather in the 1940s was actually the richest West African. My late grandfather was one of the wealthiest Nigerians, you know.

The family name is Dentata. That’s from my maternal side. My father, too, you know, was fairly rich, you know, but he was both, you know, in business and also in politics.

But you know, David, one thing that I’m very, very proud of is that I did not inherit any money from my father. I built everything from scratch to where I am. Well, he lived in the world, but you know, I mean, whatever I inherited from him, which means in assets, I gave that on to charity since then.

I started work with my, you know, uncle, but this few months and then I went to Lagos and now I started my own business by just, you know, buying cement, selling. You know, it was just a very low-key business. The issue is that when you look at cement, cement is what builds infrastructure and we need a lot of infrastructural deficits.

In Nigeria alone, we have about 17,000 deficit of housing and it is all over in, you know, Africa. So when we started cement in Nigeria, we realized that majority of it was actually imported and that is why we went in there, we started and it’s a long story.”


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“I did not inherit any money from my father. I built everything from scratch to where I am.” – Aliko Dangote pic.twitter.com/oBbiK9wRiw

— Oyindamola🙄 (@dammiedammie35) September 2, 2025