‘5 Things I Learnt Working with Aliko Dangote’ – Abdul Mukhtar

As a business owner, you have to decide why you are in a particular project. I always look at Aliko Dangote and I said there must be something about him because if a man has $20B, he should be satisfied with it but what I see is that his purpose to build this country is strong.

D
r. Abdu Mukhtar is presently the Director, Industrial and Trade Development Department, Africa Development Bank .

Prior to joining the AfDB, Dr. Mukhtar was the Group Chief Strategy Officer, Dangote Group of Industries, Nigeria, from 2014-2017 where he assisted the President/CEO, Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote set overall strategic direction for the company and overseeing key aspects of the strategic planning processes for the group, business units, subsidiaries and associated companies.

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He played a key role in driving major activities, projects and initiatives of the Company, including expansion of cement manufacturing into 14 African countries, multi-billion dollar Oil Refinery and Petrochemical Plant, plus key joint ventures in Power, Oil & Gas as well as Agriculture Sectors.

Dr. Mukhtar once represented Aliko Dangote at an event where he spoke on things he learnt working with him closely.

1. Purpose

As a business owner, you have to decide why you are in a particular project. I always look at Aliko Dangote and I said there must be something about him because if a man has $20B, he should be satisfied with it but what I see is that his purpose to build this country is strong.

He always identified five men that built United State of America, Carnegie, JP Morgan, Vanderbilt, John Rockefeller, saying that the five men were so powerful that they transformed every industry that they touched oil, rail, steel, shipping, automobiles, and finance.

As a business owner, you must ask yourself what you want to do when you wake up early in the morning. Dangote has the vision to build Nigeria to the greater height.

2. Passion

Passion is very important to whatsoever you want to achieve in life. I have seen Aliko having great passion for Nigerians and that is why we are involved in providing basic amenities for peoples’ need. It is not primarily about the money.

I see my boss sleeps three hour per day, he closes a meeting to sleep and in the next hours is ready for another meeting. Through the power of passion, he has the knowledge of what is happening in the businesses, if you wake him up now and ask him how much we buy coal in our Senegal plant yesterday, he will tell you. If you ask how many bags of cement we buy in Obajana yesterday, he will tell you.

3. Partnership

You need to make strategic partnership to run a successful business with family, friends, even staff. Nobody can run any business alone. It is not even the best practise to run any business alone.

At Dangote, the reason we are in the business of truck is because we can’t find a reliable company than can handle this for us.

If there is a company that can run a very good fleet, we will opt out running our own truck. Our primary assignment is not running truck.

In Zambia, the entire trucking capacity is not enough to transport our business, so we have to import. If we have any company we can partner with, we would be glad to do so.

4.      Perseverance

To be candid it is not easy to be an entrepreneur, do not let anybody deceive you. It is difficult, it is challenging, there is ups and down, but you need to just persevere.

You need to continue to move on, tell yourself that you can do this. There will be times that things are going to be tough. Aliko several times have taught about getting out of business but when he sees people he employs, the amount of time he’s investing, the experience he has in the business, so he can’t just quit. If you quit it means that you are a lazy man and your enemies will rejoice over you.

5.      Prayer

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Either you are a Muslim or Christian; there is no way you can succeed in business without prayer, it is very important. You must make this important in your life. Aliko prays everyday, I have been with him.

When you pray, the sky is not the limit for you, it is the beginning. You must go out there and tell the world that you can do it, conquer the world, do not let anybody bring you down and continue to fly.