Dangote listed among world’s 50 most influential persons

The President, Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has been named among the 50 world’s most influential personalities by Bloomberg, the renowned United States-based news media with bias for business and financial news reporting.

The personalities chosen by the Bloomberg Market consisted of CEOs, world leaders as well as religious leaders. As expected, US President, Barack Obama; German Chancellor, Angela Merkel; and Pope Francis made the list, with Dangote ranked 41st.

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.”

On Dangote, Bloomberg stated, “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.”

Paul Wallace of the media outfit wrote, “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.

Speaking at the Financial Times Africa Summit in London on Sunday, Dangote had expressed confidence that Nigeria would weather the oil shock that had decimated government revenues if it stepped up the fight against corruption.