Dangote the only African on the Bloomberg 50 list
Saturday December 09 2017
Nigerian Aliko Dangote's picture on the Nasdaq Tower in Times Square, New York. What sets the Bloomberg 50 apart is that each person chosen has demonstrated measurable change over the past year. PHOTO | COURTESY
Nigerian investor Aliko Dangote was honoured on December 5 at the Bloomberg 50 annual gala dinner at New York’s iconic Gotham Hall.
Bloomberg’s list of 50 most influential names who have had an impact on the world in 2017, included Dangote, Africa’s richest person, for his outstanding commitment of over $4 billion to increase Nigeria’s food production capacity.
Represented in New York by the chief executive of his foundation, Dangote was joined by electric car visionarywvv; Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salmon; Beatrice Fihn, anti-nuclear weapons advocate and Nobel Peace Laureate; Amazon’s Jeff Bezos; Robert Mueller, special counsel investigating Donald Trump’s potential collusion with Russia; and Vitalik Buterin, whose invention of the cryptocurrency Ethereum is revolutionising the new blockchain craze.
Dangote’s contribution to the world this year revolves around his dynamic attention to lessen food imports into his own country and Africa’s largest nation, Nigeria, by focusing on domestic production of sugar and dairy products, with 500 million litres of Nigerian milk to be produced by 2019.
Earlier this year, he announced a $50 billion plan to invest in renewable energy.
“What sets the Bloomberg 50 apart from other lists is that each person chosen has demonstrated measurable change over the past year,” Bloomberg Businessweek editor Megan Murphy said.
Dangote claimed another distinction at the Bloomberg 50; he was the only African.