Dangote bestowed with highest national honour in Republic of Benin

President, Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has been  conferred with the highest national honour in the Republic of Benin, the Grand Commander of the National Order of the Republic of Benin.

President, Republic of Benin, Boni Yayi, bestowed the award on him at a ceremony held at the presidential complex in Cotonou on Thursday.

The president said the country was proud of the business exploits of Dangote in Africa and could ordinarily reward him to motivate him to do more and for others to emulate him
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Dangote, whose wealth is valued at over $20 billion by Forbes, is the richest man in Africa with huge interests in cement, sugar, salt, agriculture, manufacturing and petreloeum.

Yayi described Aliko Dangote as a true son of Africa and deserved the award having proved his mettle in private sector.

He pointed out that the category of award conferred on Dangote is reserved for presidents and heads of state of his country and that Dangote is the first person outside government to bag the award.

The president used the occasion to invite  Dangote to come and invest in the country.

According to him,  pointing out that opportunities abound in sectors like power, agriculture, telecommunication, agriculture, ports and aviation.

In his response, Dangote thanked the president and his country for the award  which he described as a great honour. He said the award has placed a great burden on him to stay, invest and help develop the Republic of Benin.

He promised to partner with the President and the country's private sector to develop the country.

Amid intermittent applause, Dangote said he would invest heavily in the country especially in the power sector and then announced that his Group would invest about $300 million in a coal fired 200-megawatt power plant.

The memorandum of understanding for the plant was then signed during a brief ceremony where chief of staff to Aliko Dangote, Engineer Joe Makoju signed for the Group while Minister of Power, Benin Republic, Kassa Barthelemy signed for his country.

The billionaire businessman was on November 14, 2011 similarly conferred with the second highest national honour in Nigeria, the Grand Commander of the Order of Niger (GCON) making him one of the 10 individuals to be given the honour till date.

. Dangote group alone has provided close to 30, 000 jobs for Nigerians noting that all the other recipients of the award have not contributed up to five percent of what Dangote did for the country.