Sanusi Dantata (c. 1919 – 15 April 1997) was a wealthy Nigerian entrepreneur and son of Alhassan Dantata. He was a director of the Nigeria branch of Shell B.P. and founder of Sanusi Dantata and sons limited.

Business career

Dantata only completed four years of studies at Dala Elementary School before leaving because his father preferred a career in trading to Western education for his children. When he was 16 years old, he was given a share of his father's cattle business, the purchase of cattle in the

north North is one of the four compass points or cardinal directions. It is the opposite of south and is perpendicular to east and west. ''North'' is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating Direction (geometry), direction or geography. Etymology T ...

and transport by rail to

Lagos Lagos ( ; ), or Lagos City, is a large metropolitan city in southwestern Nigeria. With an upper population estimated above 21 million dwellers, it is the largest city in Nigeria, the most populous urban area on the African continent, and on ...

for sale. Thereafter, he added groundnut produce buying and transport and haulage as part of his enterprise. However, he was forced to sell much of the transport and cattle business by 1947 and later added on real estate. He was in the real estate and groundnut business when his father died in 1955. His father left a will to be shared among his nineteen children and three wives following

Maliki The Maliki school or Malikism is one of the four major madhhab, schools of Islamic jurisprudence within Sunni Islam. It was founded by Malik ibn Anas () in the 8th century. In contrast to the Ahl al-Hadith and Ahl al-Ra'y schools of thought, the ...

law. Dantata's share of cash from the will was over $12,000 but he was already wealthy by that time. He used the inheritance to revive his transport and

lorry A truck or lorry is a motor vehicle designed to transport freight, carry specialized payloads, or perform other utilitarian work. Trucks vary greatly in size, power, and configuration, but the vast majority feature body-on-frame constructio ...

business. In the 1960s, he was the largest licensed produce buying agent of groundnut in Nigeria. However, by 1980, he had relinquished some of his business interest to his sons, including the eldest, Abdulkadir Sanusi Dantata, who co-founded Dantata and Sawoe and Asada Farms. Dantata was also charitable, by 1963, he was spending about 40,000 pounds each year in credit to friends and the poor and provided funds to each of his children and in-laws. The Dantata family operated their businesses partly through a patrimonial system of credit allocation, trade and business transfers to

kin Kin usually refers to kinship and family. Kin or KIN may also refer to: Places * Kin empires and dynasties of China, now romanized as ''Jin'' *Kin, Okinawa, a town in Okinawa, Japan * Kin, Pakistan, a village along the Indus in Pakistan * Kin ...

, household and others members of their clientage. At one point in time, both Sanusi and his brother, Aminu controlled about 200 agents involved in buying

Kola nut The kola nut ( Yoruba: ''obi'', Dagbani: ''guli'', Hausa: goro, Igbo: ''ọjị'', Sängö: ''gôro,'' Swahili: ''mukezu'') is the seed of certain species of plant of the genus ''Cola'', placed formerly in the cocoa family Sterculiaceae and ...

, Livestock, Groundnut and Merchandise. The system involved about five autonomous level of associates, agents, and farmers. Some members of this system engage in buying goods from restricted rural areas and transporting it to the city where another group of agents in the Urban area buys the goods and store them instead of Dantata. Also, the Dantata family through marriage and credit extension is linked with a few independent trading families in Kano and Northern Nigeria.

Islam

He was also a personal friend of the

Qadiriyya The Qadiriyya () or the Qadiri order () is a Sunni Sufi order (''Tariqa'') founded by Abdul Qadir Gilani (1077–1166, also transliterated ''Jilani''), who was a Hanbali scholar from Gilan, Iran. The order, with its many sub-orders, is widesp ...

scholar, Ali Kumasi and supported some of the latter's religious works in

Kano Kano may refer to: Places *Kano State, a state in Northern Nigeria *Kano (city), a city in Nigeria, and the capital of Kano State ** Kingdom of Kano, a Hausa kingdom between the 10th and 14th centuries ** Sultanate of Kano, a Hausa kingdom betwee ...

. His support for Ali Kumasi led him into conflict with Nasiru Kabara, the leader of the

movement in Kano and West Africa and a former tutor of Sanusi. Both Kumasi and Dantata tried to promote an independent Qadiriyya scholarship and religious authority, challenging the leadership of Kabara. However, by the early 1970s, both men joined the Kabara faction of Kano Qadiriyya.Roman Loimeier. Islamic Reform and Political Change in Northern Nigeria, Northwestern University Press, 1997. p 65-70.

References

External links

"The Nigerian Millionaires" at TIME Magazine
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dantata, Sanusi 20th-century Nigerian businesspeople 1910s births 1997 deaths Sanusi