Aliko Dangote, the wealthiest person in Africa and the most well-known billionaire in Nigeria, has been progressively integrating his three daughters into his company, which is regarded as a dedication to family legacy and a hint of succession preparation.
Aliko Dangote, the Nigerian billionaire who Bloomberg estimates is worth $28.5 billion as of July 28, has quietly started to take a break from his boardroom responsibilities.
The 68-year-old industrialist stepped down from the Dangote Sugar Refinery board in June.
Prior to the opening of his $20 billion oil refinery last Friday, he also resigned as chairman of Dangote Cement, the company’s flagship.
Emmanuel Ikazoboh, a 2014 hire and former chair of Ecobank Transnational Incorporated, has taken his place at Dangote Cement.
Mariya Dangote: DPAN, Dangote Sugar, and Dangote Cement
Mariya Dangote, his oldest daughter, has joined the Dangote Cement board. Her hiring is meant to keep the company “agile and well positioned for long-term value creation,” according to a statement from the company. Her “understanding of strategic operations and cross-functional expertise” were mentioned as important strengths.
After managing digital transformation initiatives, backward integration projects, and strategic planning since 2019, Mariya was appointed executive director of operations at Dangote Sugar Refinery in 2022. Shortly after earning an MBA from Coventry University in the UK, she joined the group’s holding firm, Dangote Industries Limited (DIL), in 2016 and worked there as a business strategy and risk specialist.
She is also a board member of Dangote Peugeot Automobiles Nigeria, a local manufacturer and distributor of Peugeot automobiles.
Since Mariya’s nomination, two of Dangote’s daughters have served on the board of Dangote Cement, which as of July 28 is the third-largest listed company in Nigeria with a valuation of N8.34 trillion ($5.4 billion).
Halima: Family Office, NASCON, DIL, and Dangote Cement
Soon after her uncle, Sani Dangote, who was also the vice president of DIL, passed away in early 2022, Halima Dangote was nominated to the Dangote Cement board. She spearheaded a turnaround at Dangote Flour Mills, which resulted in its sale to Singapore’s Olam Group, before joining DIL as a group executive director in 2019.
She served as an executive director of NASCON Allied Industries, another DIL subsidiary, from 2014 to 2016, and she is still a non-executive member of the board.
Halima was given the responsibility of setting up and managing the Dangote Family Office in Dubai in 2023. Additionally, she serves as a trustee for the Aliko Dangote Foundation, which is the organization’s charitable division.
Fatima-NASCON, DIL
The youngest of the three, Fatima Dangote, is DIL’s group executive director for commercial operations. She is in charge of the group’s administration, communications, procurement, and commercial strategy. Prior positions included executive assistant to the director of business development and portfolio management and technical specialist in the strategy unit.
She emphasized Dangote Industries’ efforts to domesticate sugar production in an interview with The Africa Report last year. “Nigeria is importing 90% of the sugar requirement. The homegrown sugar is still less than 10%,” she said. “However, with the aggressive implementation of the Backward Integration Programme, Dangote will be able to reduce its dependence on imports soon.”
Prior to her appointment as executive director in 2016, she was in charge of NASCON Allied Industries’ commercial sales, marketing, logistics, and branding strategies. She has been a member of the board since 2023.
I can tell you with certainty that my three daughters—Mariya, Halima, and Fatima—are essential to the group’s success as senior executives.
Fatima frequently attends public events with her father and is also actively involved with the Aliko Dangote Foundation. She called him “extremely hardworking” in a CNN interview last year.
When asked if he was being overbearing as a dad, she responded: “A bit hard. I think he expects so much more from us compared to other people, and when you have a father like him, nothing but perfection is acceptable, then you have to work extra.”
Continued expansion in key industries
Dangote has indicated a fresh focus on his group’s energy and industrial endeavors while withdrawing from the cement business. The firm brought its 650,000-barrels-per-day refinery in 2024 and just opened a $2.5 billion fertilizer factory in Lagos. It reopened its Kano tomato processing facility last November.
DIL stated in a statement that Dangote will now focus on government relations, fertilizer, petrochemical, and refinery businesses.
He said earlier this month that he would increase refinery capacity to 700,000 barrels per day and more than treble output at the fertilizer facility by 2028. Additionally, he disclosed plans to create what he called “Nigeria’s largest deep-sea port” to support exports of the group’s energy and industrial products, adding that the new port would “become an anchor for our liquefied natural gas, fertilisers and fuels”.
In addition to Nigeria, DIL and the Ethiopian government have inked a $3 billion deal for the construction of a fertilizer facility in Gode, Somalia.
‘They are critical to the success of our business’
Dangote emphasized his daughters’ contributions to the organization at a 2019 event in Lagos.
He attributed his business-minded mindset to his mother, whom he called “a strong business-minded woman” who nurtured his ambition. “My three daughters, Mariya, Halima and Fatima, are all senior executives at the group, and I can tell you for a fact that they are critical to the success of our business,” he said.