Aminu Dantata

Aminu Alhassan Dantata (; 19 May 1931 – 28 June 2025) was a Nigerian businessman and philanthropist who was one of the promoters of Kano State Foundation, an endowment fund that supported educational initiatives and provided grants to small-scale entrepreneurs in Kano. He was the head of a group of companies that managed his real estate and other business ventures.

Aminu Alhassan Dantata was the founder of Express Petroleum & Gas Company Ltd and one of the organizers of Jaiz Bank in Nigeria. In 1978, he was a member of the National Movement, an organization that later transformed to the National Party of Nigeria.

Background Dantata was born into the family of Alhassan Dantata, who was from an Agalawa trading family, Aminu Dantata's grandfather was called Abdullahi while his great-grandfather was called Baba Talatin, a prosperous merchant who brought the family from Katsina to Madobi following the death of his father Ali. Aminu Dantata's grandfather Abdullahi continued to operate from Madobi until 1877 when having set out for a journey to Gonja his wife delivered Alhassan Dantata, the father of Aminu at a campsite (Zango) of Bebeji. On his return from the journey he decided to abandon Madobi and moved to Bebeji. Aminu Dantata was the fifteenth child in a family of seventeen children. From 1938 to 1945, he was educated at Dala Primary School and then finished his education through home studies in a private school built by his father in 1949.

Over the years, Dantata expanded the business holdings and his activities into various sectors of the Nigerian political and economic sphere. By the beginning of the 1960s, Dantata had a construction firm that received patronage from the newly independent government in Nigeria, his firm was given a contract to build part of the School of Aviation in Zaria. In 1961, he was among three other businessmen as part of the 23-member economic mission group, the first worldwide mission sent by an independent government in Nigeria. In 1964, he was among the pioneer board members of the Nigerian Industrial Development Bank. In 1968, Dantata was appointed Kano State commissioner for Economic Development, Trade and Industry under the administration of Audu Bako, he was in the position until 1973.

Alhassan Dantata and Sons Group Dantata assumed executive leadership of Alhassan Dantata and Sons in 1960. Established by his father as commodity firm trading in groundnut, kolanut and a few other commodities, Dantata later invested in some foreign enterprises operating in Nigeria. Between 1960 and 1980, it operated the following divisions: Building and construction division whose contracts included Defence Academy in Kaduna, extension to Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria and a civil aviation training school in Zaria. A Merchandise division that was founded in the middle of the 1970s traded in building materials primarily in Northern Nigeria. He was the first chancellor of Al-Qalam University, Katsina.