Groningen is a pleasant place, with an old university, but its claims to fame do not extend to much beyond the industrial processing of sugar-beet and a glorious 15th-century tower.
He delved into full production of these items in the early 2000s and went on to build the Dangote Group, West Africa's largest publicly-listed conglomerate, which now owns sugar refineries, salt processing facilities and Dangote Cement, the continent's largest cement producer.
He started trading commodities more than 30 years ago after receiving a business loan from his uncle, and eventually built the Dangote Group, which in addition to cement owns sugar refineries, flour milling and salt processing facilities.