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.
Also, another list compiled by business news network CNBC, which highlights those who, have disrupted industries, sparked change and exercised an influence far beyond their own companies, listed Dangote among 24 others.
“As CNBC embarks on its second quarter-century, it faces a world completely altered from when it started.
The 25 men and women listed [here], from different parts of the world and across different industries, have, for better or worse, been the rebels, icons and leaders in the vanguard of that change,” it said.
“Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest person, built his fortune in two distinct phases, riding the changes that led to Nigeria becoming the continent’s largest economy,” CNBC said.
“Expanding his empire from his native country to West Africa, and then across sub-Saharan Africa from Ethiopia to South Africa, Dangote showed that it was possible to create wealth in the region by means other than tapping the continent’s abundant natural resources.”
The business news network added that Dangote’s proposed building of an oil refinery is typical of his vision and will allow him to move into producing fertiliser and polypropylene as well.
“Dangote’s model was straightforward from the get-go: to dominate sectors protected from new entrants, and to use scale and his trucking and distribution system to drive prices down to levels that let him crush domestic rivals.
“He has pursued success with single-minded focus, and has many critics,” said CNBC.
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