All You Need To Know About The Dangote Group Of Companies
Introduction
As a Nigerian living in Nigeria, chances are that you have heard Dangote and Dangote group being mentioned quite a number of times.
Brief history
The Dangote Group of Companies is a multinational conglomerate and prides itself as one of the largest in Africa. It was founded by Aliko Dangote in the year 1981. He started the company with a $3,000 loan from his uncle. Aliko Dangote also founded the Blue Star services. The Dangote group gives employment to over 30,000 Nigerians, and the headquarters of this multinational conglomeration is located in Lagos, Nigeria.
At first, in the year 1981, the company kicked off as a trading enterprise, dealing in the importation of sugar, cement, seafood, and other consumable items that were distributed in the Nigerian market.
Fast-forward to the year 1991, the company had recorded significant growth and began to engage in the business of manufacturing. It made its debut with textiles and gradually moved on to the manufacturing of food items and materials like processing salt, milling flour, and refining sugar.
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Journey into manufacturing
Textiles
The Dangote group of companies waded into the manufacturing waters in 1989 and began to operate two textile manufacturing plants. The first was a Textile weaving Mill in Kano and the second was the Nigerian textile Mills plant in Lagos.
Consumer goods
With the dearth of the textile sector, the company decided to launch into the deep and began to manufacture consumer goods. Some goods included flour and sugar refining. This move saw the company enter into competition with foreign and imported consumer goods from Brazil and Europe. The Dangote sugar refinery then officially kicked off in the year 1999. This success encouraged them to take greater strides which resulted in the establishment of a pasta plant in addition to a flour mill to feed the plant with raw materials needed for production.
Cement
The first into the cement business first began with an investment into a Cement manufacturing group at Obajana in Kogi State. Another investment was also made in Ibeshe, Ogun State. This increased the metric tonnes of cement produced by the local manufacturing sector. It rose from about 2.5 million tonnes to 8 million tonnes.
Expansion
The Dangote group of companies went ahead to search for expansion opportunities beyond Nigeria. They began to build and acquire cement plants in several African countries.
The Dangote group eventually grew to become a conglomerate with several diversifications in Nigeria and beyond.
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Subsidiaries
Dangote cement sits currently as the largest producing company in Africa. It has subsidiaries in various countries like Benin Republic, South Africa, Gambia, Cameroon, Zambia etcetera. The company has a market capitalization of over $14 billion dollars on the Nigerian stock exchange.
Dangote group went into an agreement with the Zambian government in 2010 to construct a 400 million dollar cement plant in Zambia. It was completed in 2015 and generates about 1.5 million metric tonnes of cement.
Dangote Sugar is the most expansive sugar refining company located in sub-Saharan Africa. It is also one of the major subsidiaries of the Dangote group.
Competition
The Dangote group still records competition with some other companies. Competitors exist both within and outside Nigeria.
The Stallion group offers competition in several portions of Africa. In Nigeria, Dangote cement competes with Bus cement. Dangote Sugar also competes with Bus refinery and golden sugar co.
Newer diversification
Dangote group of companies have diversified into the oil and gas sector and allied products. They are currently putting up a petroleum refinery that will be capable of refining about 650,000 barrels of oil. This will make the refinery the largest in Africa.
In addition to the petroleum refinery, the company is also establishing a 3 million tonnes fertilizer plant. This will make them one of the largest suppliers of fertilizer in Nigeria and Africa.
Operations
The Dangote group of companies have the following operation.
They play key roles in the manufacturing and distribution of
- Flour and semolina. This is managed by the Dangote flour Mills. The flour Mills are fully owned by the Dangote group. The Mills are located at a) Sharada Road, Kano, Kano State b) NPA port complex Calabar, Cross River State, and c) Asa Dam road, Ilorin, Kwara State.
- Sugar. Managed by Dangote Sugar which is located at Shed 20, NPA Apapa Wharf complex, Apapa Wharf.
- Pasta. Headed and managed by Dangote Pasta located at NPA terminal Ebutte metta, Ikorodu, Lagos State. The Dangote Noodles company is located at 1 Alfred Rewane Road, Abule, Ikorodu, Lagos State.
- Salt and Food seasonings and stock cubes. This is under the umbrella of NASCON, a national salt company. They are also involved in the production of vegetable oil. Their office is located at 15B Ikosi Road, Oregun industrial estate, Ikeja, Lagos State.
- Tomato paste. This is managed by a subsidiary of the conglomerate, Dansa foods limited. They produce items like Tomato paste, juice, cotton, etc. Their Lagos office is located at NTM Compound, Plot 3 Oba Akran Avenue, Ikeja, Lagos.
- Cement. Managed by Dangote Cement.
- Petrochemical products
- Fertilizer
- Packaging materials. This is managed by the Dangote Agro Sacks Limited responsible for the production of bags and packaging of goods produced by the companies. Their office is located at NTM Compound, Plot 3 Oba Akran Avenue, Ikeja, Lagos State.
They are also involved in
- Real estate
- Logistics, which is mostly port management and haulage.
- Dangote foundation
List of products
The list of products produced by the Dangote group of companies includes
- Dansa juice
- Dangote sugar
- Dangote noodles
- Dangote spaghetti
- Petit Tomato paste
- Dangote sacks
- Dangote flour
- Dangote macaroni
- Dangote salt
- Danvita
- Mowa water
- Ziza milk etc
Dangote foundation
This was set up by Aliko Dangote and incorporated in 1994. It is currently the largest private foundation in Sub-saharan Africa and has the largest endowment by a single African donor.
Related: List of products and services in the Dangote group of companies
They are committed to helping out in Health, Education, Empowerment, and humanitarian relief. The foundation played an active role in the fight against COVID-19 in Nigeria by donating a laboratory and laboratory equipment to ease testing.
You can find out more about the Aliko Dangote Foundation and the Dangote Group of companies.
