Dangote’s Net Worth Swells by $3bn in One Year

By Sodeinde Temidayo David

The President and Chief Executive of Dangote Group, Mr Aliko Dangote, has again been named the richest man in Africa by Bloomberg, a position he has occupied for the eighth time in a row, with his net worth rising by $3 billion in one year.

According to the index, which polls the net worth of the richest 500 people in the world released on Monday by Bloomberg in its yearly billionaires’ list, Mr Dangote’s net worth moved up to $17.8 billion from last year’s $14.8 billion.

Mr Dangote was also the only Nigerian on the list of the top 120 billionaires, positioned in 117th on the rank index.

The Bloomberg billionaires index is a daily ranking of the world’s richest people, usually updated at the close of every trading day in the New York stock exchange.

The Nigerian businessman owns sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest cement producer, Dangote Cement Plc. He also has interests in sugar, salt, fertiliser and packaged foods.

Recently, Mr Dangote was also named as the sixth most charitable man in the world by Richtopia, a digital periodical that covers business, economics, and financial news, based in the United Kingdom.

This recognition came after he endowed his foundation, the Aliko Dangote Foundation (ADF), to the tune of $1.25 billion.

The primary focus of the foundation is health and nutrition, supported by wrap-around interventions in education, empowerment and humanitarian relief.

According to the Bloomberg index, Tesla’s founder, Mr Elon Musk and Amazon’s founder, Mr Jeff Bezos, topped the list of the billionaires’ index with a combined $194 billion worth of fortunes.

While Mr Bernard Arnault and Mr Bill Gates followed with $174 billion and $148 billion respectively.

Recognised as the owner of Facebook, Mr Mark Zuckerberg, emerged as the fifth richest in the world with $135 billion on the billionaires’ chart.

Other Africans on the list of top 500 world’s billionaires are three South Africans; the managers of the Swiss-based luxury-goods company Richemont and the South Africa-based company Remgro, Johann Rupert and family had their place on the billionaire index with the worth of $10.1 billion.

A member of the Oppenheimer family from South Africa, also the world’s diamond producer, Mr Nickholas Oppenheimer, was placed at rank 353 with a worth of $7.80 billion.

Also, the CEO of Krish Group, Mr Natie Kirsh, also from SouthAfrica,  had a place in the billionaire index,  reputed to be worth $7.15 billion and Nassef Sawiris from Egypt is also among African billionaires with a worth of $6.93 billion.