If u all that think Aliko is not smart, suffice u to know that hes also buying up lumber jack business here in the usa. Hes a man after my heart and will root for him anyday.

I see a lot of ignorance on this thread. There is no product that Dangote sells in which he is a 'monopoly'. If dangote has a monopoly in flour, what happened to Flour Mills of Nigeria(Nigeria's biggest miller), Honeywell flour mills, BUA flour, Crown flour mills, Northern Nigeria flour mills, Lister mills?

If Dangote is a cement monopoly, what happened to Lafarge (Wapco), Flour mills (UNICEM), Cement company of Northern Nigeria, Eastern Bulkcem, Ashaka, Sokoto cement, AVA?

If Dangote is a rice monopolist, what happened to Stallion and Churchgate? What of BUA sugar?

Ignorant Nigerians do not realize that the secret of Dangote simply lies in the fact he produces on the biggest scale which gives his product a cost/price advantage coupled with the fact that he has an unmatched distibution fleet in Nigeria. Only strong multinationals with deep pockets like Lafarge or Flour Mills can compete with that. Go into the market place and see if if there is any product that Dangote sells in which his products are not far cheaper than that of his competitors. This is essentially what drives them out business as they cannot match dangote's prices.

How can you be importing 50000 tonnes of cement and want to compete with someone who manufactures more than 5 millions tonnes. Or want to compete with someone who has more than 5000 trailers criss crossing the length and breadth of Nigeria distributing his goods. You can't.

Another secret of Dangote is that he has turned his name into a national brand. There is no product that he produces that does not fly off the shelves. why? Why not produce your own cement and brand it 'Dimkpa' and place it side by side with 'Dangote' and watch which one Nigerians will buy. That is the power of his brand.

How come every product he sells is not smuggled into Naija? Have u seen smuggled cement, flour, fertilizer, sugar etc. Its simply because those goods can't compete with his prices and product availability? The only time smuggled rice disapeared from Nigeria was when Dangote was selling rice. His prices drove them out. He does not sell rice anymore though. Dangote's tactics is what thrives in a mass market like Nigeria.

So think before you malign the man.

I know Dangote is the richest man in Nigeria (according to Forbes.com). I admire him.

He is a Nigerian and probably Africa's richest man. We should be proud!

There are many facts most people here and elsewhere don't know about Dangote.

[size=18pt]Islam permits him to be polygamous, but he is a serial monogamist -- by choice. He has been married to four women, and has sired fifteen children. His first wife, to whom he got married on May 27, 1977 -- he was 20 years old -- was "specially chosen for him by a consensus of his mother and other uncles."

Around that same time he left Kano, where he was born, and where his maternal family is one of the richest and most prominent, for Lagos, then Nigeria's Federal Capital, and seat of government.

He has been heartbroken. His attempt to marry a daughter of former President Yar'Adua failed -- she turned him down, and then went on to marry a state Governor. Since 1983 he has experienced three "near-fatal" plane accidents. A younger brother died in the plane crash that killed the son of Nigeria's Head of State, Sani Abacha, in 1996. [/size]

~ Tolu Ogunlesi
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tolu-ogunlesi/aliko-dangote_b_1642164.html