Africa’s richest black man, Aliko Dangote, has sparked a frenzy on Twitter, with thousands of followers ecstatically welcoming him to the social network. As reported last night by News Express, Dangote joined Twitter yesterday.

As at 9 O’Clock this morning, the Nigerian business mogul had 17,888 followers – out of which some 13,200 started following him even before he made his first tweet.

Dangote, President/Chief Executive of Dangote Group and philanthropist, used his inaugural tweet to welcome everyone into the New Year and encouraged his followers to keep the conversation going. He tweeted: “Glad to be on Twitter. Wishing you all a prosperous New Year. Stay positively committed to achieving your dreams, nothing is impossible” January 1, 2014.

Dangote, for now, is following on seven people – both individual and corporate. They are Kofi Annan Foundation ‏of former UN Secretary-General and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Kofi Annan; Jeff Immelt, Chairman & CEO of General Electric; Jack Welch, Author, Commentator, and Executive Chairman of the Jack Welch Management Institute; Gordon & Sarah Brown; the World Economic Forum; Bill Gates; and Dangote Group.

Below are some of the tweets welcoming Dangote to Twitter:

Tolu Ogunlesi ‏@toluogunlesi: Welcoming my friend and brother (and Africa’s richest man) @AlikoDangote to Twitter. No tweets yet & he already verified.

Obi Asika ‏@obiasika: Great to see @alikodangote live on twitter looking forward to that first tweet.

Omojuwa | GenVoices ‏@omojuwa: Ladies & Gentlemen, welcome the richest black man to @Twitter.

Ibitomisi James Olu ‏@IbitomisiJamesO: @aliko dangote It’s intresting to knw that you’re nw on twitter, this will afford me an opportunity to intimate u with some of my demands.

Wish to follow Dangote’s tweets? You may do so via @AlikoDangote and keep the conversation going.

•Photo shows Dangote.