Society Gists

President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote was on Monday night recognized and given the “Founder of the Year 2023” award by the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) at an award ceremony held by the bank in in Accra, Ghana.  

The award was given to Dangote because of his newly opened $19bn petrochemicals plant, which is now the Africa’s largest refinery.   Group Managing Director, Dangote Industries Limited, Olakunle Alake, was in Ghana to receive the award on behalf of Aliko Dangote.  

A statement issued by the organisers of the award stated that: “The Pan-African Business and Development Awards were designed to celebrate and recognise the excellence of outstanding organisations and individuals within the African business and finance sectors.  

“The evening recognised some leaders in African business, and Aliko Dangote (GCON) won the Afreximbank Founder of the Year in recognition of his extraordinary achievements building one of Africa’s leading industrial groups with a truly pan-African footprint. This comes on the back of the recent official opening of his $19bn petrochemicals plant and Africa’s largest refinery, which received substantial support from Afreximbank.

“Two other greats of industry, the Zimbabwean Strive Masiyiwa and the Togolese Koffi Gervais Djondo were also recognised for their outstanding contributions to African business and industry.

Masiyiwa is the founder of Liquid Intelligent Technologies, which has the largest network of fibre optic cables on the continent, Cassava Technologies, and Econet, the largest telecoms and mobile payment operator in Zimbabwe. Djondo helped found Ecobank, the leading African group in terms of footprint, as well as regional airline Asky.  

The statement further revealed that telecoms operator MTN and Egyptian business ElSewedy were also given Special Recognitions awards. MTN was recognised for transforming the Africa telecoms sector and ElSewedy for its role in the Africa infrastructure sector.

ElSewedy and Afreximbank have built a strong relationship that has seen its group become a true continental champion and part of a consortium of African banks and private sector companies that are building the multi-billion dollar Julius Nyerere Hydropower Project in Tanzania.  

Three banks were recognised in the Financial Institutions of the Year category. National Bank of Egypt, First Bank of Nigeria and Coris Bank, an important regional player in West Africa that started off in Burkina Faso, were chosen based on their volume of trade finance facilities they have utilised.