Aminu Dantata, business magnate and Dangote’s uncle, dies at 94

Aminu Alhassan Dantata, renowned billionaire businessman, is dead.

He was 94 years old. 

Mustapha Junaid, his aide, announced his passing early Saturday.

“Innalillahi wa inna ilaihi rajiun. Innalillahi wa inna ilaihi rajiun. It is with heavy heart that I announce the passing of our beloved father Alhaji Aminu Alhassan Dantata. May Allah grant him Jannatul Firdaus and forgive his shortcomings. The Janazah details will be shared later insha Allah,” Junaid wrote.

Dantata was granduncle to Aliko Dangote, the Forbes richest black man.

Aminu’s father, Alhassan, is touted as the first Nigerian millionaire and one of the wealthiest in West Africa in the first half of the 1900s.

Alhassan Dantata is Dangote’s great grandfather.

Aminu Dantata was commissioner for planning and development in Kano from 1967 to 1972. 

It is in the Kano and northern business scene, however, that his name rings a bell. He was the founder of Express Petroleum & Gas Company Ltd and one of the organisers of Jaiz Bank in Nigeria.

The first chancellor of Al-Qalam University in Katsina, Dantata is one of the promoters of the Kano state endowment fund which supports educational initiatives and provides grants to small-scale entrepreneurs in Kano.

Dantata has donated funds to various institutions around Kano.

He donated the Alhassan Dantata Haemodyalysis Centre to Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital.