Dangote @ 60: Cementing the philanthropy philosophy
‘I am going to try my best and give part of that money to charity. I am working hard on it… I think from this year I personally want to take it (philanthropy) very seriously. I want to be much more aggressive than what we have had in the past.
– Aliko Dangote, in 2014
Aliko Dangote has, indeed, been more aggressive, growing more not just in his charity inclinations, but in his other virtues that he bears naturally. Humility. Unassuming carriage.
If Dangote sits in Lagos in the midst of M.C. Oluomo and his National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) members, or rides a donkey in Kano with any common man, it is the billionaire and richest man in Africa that will be anonymous. Flaunting airs has never been one of Dangote’s strong points. Earning good money, and now giving copious parts of it to the needy, is.
Today, as Dangote clocks 60 years, the world will be celebrating the philosopher philanthropist, not the businessman billionaire. His wealth has been so ceremoniously celebrated over the years it has become trite. Now, giving part of that wealth to charity, and growing serious and aggressive about it, has been redefining his ascension.
A source in the Dangote family informed that the cement merchant’s philanthropic disposition had always been inveterate, but, until some 24 years ago, done in an informal fashion. In 1993, however, as the Dangote brand flowered more as virtually every Nigerian and international household name, he realised it was time to organise his charity activities into an organised perspective.
That year, he incorporated the Dangote Foundation in Lagos as a charity organisation as, according to the Dangote Foundation site, “a vehicle for philanthropy and corporate social responsibility, focusing on helping the less privileged.” Twenty-four years later, it has grown to become the largest private Foundation in sub-Saharan Africa with the biggest endowment by a single African donor. In 2014, when the Foundation got a new board of trustees, Dangote endowed it with N220 billion.
The main objective of the Foundation is actually to reduce the number of lives lost to malnutrition and diseases. “Improving the outcome of children’s lives forms the basis for the work the Foundation is engaged in, using our investments in health, education and economic empowerment to help lift people out of poverty,” the body says.
The Foundation has, however, been involved in many interventions that go beyond that main objective so much so that “part of that money” he vowed in 2014 to give to charity amounted to N30bn within only a twoyear period between 2013 and 2015. That was then the largest expense on charity gathered to have been done either by an African individual or company.
Dangote’s helping hands stretch across the Nigerian borders. Cementing his philanthropic philosophy is his expression that Africans must help Africa. “We already have a Foundation which will do all these things (charities), but I am trying to see what we can do to encourage not only Nigerians but other Africans,” he once said.
The Dangote heart has touched quite some vast space. One of the Foundation’s guiding principles is to provide humanitarian relief to victims of natural and man-made disasters. In 2012, the Dangote Foundation donated the sum of N2.5bn to victims of flooding in Nigeria to cushion the effects of that tragedy on them. That handout was then said to be the single highest donation by a private body in the history of Nigeria.
That year, Dangote Foundation gave the sum of N430 million to flood victims, unemployed youths and women in Kogi State. It also donated N100m to victims of Lagos flooding, N100m to those in Sokoto, N60m for those in Oyo State, and N50m to the Jigawa State government for the same purpose.
In Benue State, the body, among other charity activities, electrified 15 villages at the cost of N115m.
Several times, the Dangote group had risen to ameliorate the pathetic situation of victims of the insurgency in the North-east. On one occasion, it donated N540m to vulnerable women of the insurgency. And in another instance, it hearkened to the call to contribute to the Daily Trust IDPs Relief Fund, which also strives to put smiles on the faces of the troubled insurgency victims, with a donation of N100m.
In many states where communal clashes ravaged people’s houses and farms, the Dangote group had been quick to the rescue with trailer loads of relief items to provide succour to victims.
In 2010, the Foundation provided food items to the victims of the Jos and Bauchi crises to the tune of over N70m; provided a dialysis machine to the General Hospital, Lagos and also sunk boreholes in various communities in the country, totalling over N100m.
Beyond Nigeria, Dangote has also been involved in aiding foreign nations. It donated $500,000 to victims of explosion in the Republic of Congo; contributed $2m to easing the pains of flood victims in Pakistan, and gave $740,500 to cushion the sufferings of famine victims in Niger Republic.
According to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), the Dangote donation to the Pakistani flood victims “marked the first time WFP receives a major contribution from a company based in Africa.
Of course, Dangote’s philanthropic activities can’t be exhausted here.
Great men truly think alike. In his book, Screw Business As Usual, founder of the Virgin, Sir. Richard Branson, advocates that modern entrepreneurs should be ready to do more to affect society through charitable causes. Branson, a Forbes billionaire like Dangote, stresses: “Those of us who have been fortunate enough to acquire wealth must play a role in looking at how we use these means to make the world a far better place.”
Going by Dangote’s commitment to cementing his philosophy on philanthropy in the coming years, he seems not to be taking Branson’s words lightly.