ALIKO DANKOTE DECEIVES NIGERIANS WITH N1,000 BAG OF CEMENT TO FIGHT COMPETITORS

Everyone knows that AlhajiAliko Dangote is a highly successful business magnate in Nigeria. He sits atop the Dangote Group, which has interests in commodities. The company operates in Nigeria and several other countries in Africa, including Benin,Cameroon, Togo,Ghana, South Africa and Zambia. As at March 2014, he had an estimated net worth of $25 billion USD. 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 Amoudiin 2013 by over $2.6 billion to become the world’s richest black man.
Right now, the big businessman is doing everything possible to frustrate those who want to venture into any of his lines of business. Take for instance, the cement business; Dangote, in a bid to oust those who he believes are his major competitors recently reduced the price of his brand of cement to N1,000 per bag to ensure that the likes of BUA Cement owned by Abdulsamad Rabiu, Ibeto Cement owned by Dr. Cletus Ibeto and the Saro Cement are all frustrated out of business. Also, in a bid to use some tricks to give confidence to Nigerians, Dangote said that he will make sure that he pays the accumulating tax on his cement manufacturing and importation to the federal government from his own personal account. Anyway, one fact remains that Nigerians believe that the rich do not pay tax in this country and they already have a mutual relationship and business pact with the federal government. We also have it on good authority that this will not be the first time Dangote would say that he is crashing the prices of cement. Some who are in the know told us that he only does that to harass his competitors and send them packing from the business.
Alhaji Aliko Dangote who hails from Kano State is also from a wealthy Muslim family. From the time he was young, Dangote had an eye on business. He was quoted as saying, “I can remember when I was in primary school, I would go and buy cartons of sweets [sugar boxes] and I would start selling them just to make money. I was so interested in business, even at that time.” He studied business at the Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egyptand thereafter returned to Nigeria to borrow from his uncle Sanusi Abdulkadir Dantata, who provided him a loan of ₦500,000 when Aliko was just 21 years old, in order to start a business.
The Dangote Group was established as a small trading firm in 1977. Today, it is a multi-trillion naira conglomerate with many of its operations in Benin, Ghana,Nigeria, and Togo. At present, Dangote has enlarged his line of businesses to also cover food processing, cement manufacturing, and freight. The Dangote Group also dominates the sugar market in Nigeria and is a major sugar supplier to the country’s soft drink companies, breweries, and confectioners. The Dangote Group has moved from being a trading company to being the largest industrial group in Nigeria and these include: Dangote Sugar Refinery, Dangote Cement, and Dangote Flour, just to mention a few.
Many people are now watching with keen eyes the reason for this Father Christmas attitude of Dangote who is notorious for allowing any competitor to cross his line of business and they are skeptical of this generosity to the extent that they claim that nothing good will definitely come out of it and when he is finally done with those he lays the landmines for, cement price will definitely come back to its normal price.