3rd April, 2012
Africa’s richest man, Nigerian Aliko Dangote, has donated 500,000 dollars to victims of last month’s munitions blasts in Congo which killed at least 282 people, his group said on Tuesday..
Dangote made the donation at the weekend in the Congolese capital Brazzaville with a pledge to increase his charity works as well as create more jobs for Africans this year.”About this philanthropy, I think from this year, I personally want to take it very seriously. I want to be much more aggressive than what we have had in the past,” he said in a statement.
Congolese President Denis Sassou-Nguesso said that his gvernment has started reconstruction of houses affected in the blasts, adding that “this contribution will go a long way in building new houses for the victims,” the statement said.Dangote, rated by Forbes as Africa’s richest man with vast interests in oil and gas, banking, flour, sugar and food production in Nigeria, also operates in about a dozen other African countries.The powerful March 4 blasts in Brazzaville, blamed on a short-circuit and fire, killed at least 282 people, injured 2,300 more and destroyed hundreds of homes around the munitions depot, leaving 14,000 homeless.