Aliko Dangote, Africa’s Richest Man Joins Twitter, Hasn’t Actually Tweeted, Goes Viral

Africa’s wealthiest business man, Aliko Dangote just joined Twitter, sans fanfare of any sort. But his quiet arrival hasn’t gone unnoticed. Within a short time, word of his arrival to the micro blogging platform has spread amongst the Twitterati of his home country, Nigeria. Aliko Dangote, 56, is the founder and chairman of the Dangote Group of Companies and is currently worth $20.8 billion, making him one of the top 25 richest people in the world. He is also besties with Bill Gates. Dangote hasn’t tweeted yet, a silence that speaks volumes. But even more conspicuous than his loud silence is the telltale blue tick that indicates that a Twitter account has been verified. Pretty slick for an account that hatched mere hours ago, and with nary a tweet.

Welcoming my friend and brother (and Africa's richest man) @AlikoDangote to Twitter. No tweets yet & he already verified.

— tolu ogunlesi (@toluogunlesi) December 31, 2013

The most recognisable mogul of African business isn’t talking, but everybody else is. Nigerian Twitter lit up as they dropped whatever else it was they were talking about previously to welcome their “brother, friend and father” to Twitter. Atiku Abubakar, former vice president of Nigeria and presidential hopeful, who joined Twitter a few months ago and seems eager to share personal moments currently has close to 100,000 followers and is by far the most popular Nigerian big man on there. All of that didn’t come without some high octane social media consulting. But Aliko Dangote doesn’t look like he’s here without help. A line in his Twitter bio encourages us to add him on Google+. In all of the two(?) hours that he’s been here, Dangote has acquired close to four six thousand followers, has already trended (in Lagos) and keeps adding stans hand over fist. At this rate Dangote looks like he will quickly surpass his Naija big man predecessors on Twitter. Dangote currently follows nine people. Eight of those are as you would expect, with his bff, Bill Gates in second place, preceded only by Dangote Group. Africa’s richest man also follows Gordon and Sarah Brown, managament maestro and former General Electric CEO Jack Welch, as well as GE’s current CEO, Jack Immelt. What we would like to know is why he is also following someone who appears to be a lady named Nkem. And yes, you can follow him on Twitter here.