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Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, has regained ground after a difficult stretch in late November, when his net worth slipped to $29.1 billion. Fresh gains in his cement business have now lifted him back to $30 billion on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, keeping him ahead of other global tycoons and restoring a position he briefly ceded during the market dip.
Dangote gains $900 million on stock rise
Bloomberg’s real-time billionaires index shows that Dangote gained $900 million over the past 15 days, helped by renewed investor interest in his publicly traded companies. The rebound was led by Dangote Cement Plc, his flagship business on the Nigerian Exchange, which remains one of the country’s most valuable listed companies and a key pillar of his fortune.
Shares of Dangote Cement have risen 4.5 percent over the same period, climbing from N534.6 ($0.36) to N614.9 ($0.42). That increase pushed the company’s market value to N10.2 trillion ($7.02 billion) and lifted the worth of Dangote’s controlling 87.45 percent stake from $5.8 billion to $6.21 billion. His year-to-date gain has now reached $1.89 billion, underscoring how closely his wealth moves with the performance of his industrial holdings.
Dangote targets 1.4 million-barrel output
Beyond the stock market, Dangote is pushing ahead with a major expansion of his business empire. He signed new agreements in India to lift the capacity of his Lagos refinery to 1.4 million barrels a day, advancing his long-running plan to cut Africa’s dependence on imported fuel. The deal with the Honeywell Group covers licensing and engineering work for a new 750,000-barrels-a-day unit that will sit alongside the existing 650,000-barrels-a-day plant.
He is also expanding outside Nigeria. Engineers India Limited has been appointed project manager for a $3 billion upgrade of Dangote’s urea plant in Ethiopia, which will raise output to 3 million tons a year. The announcements follow earlier comments from Dangote Group executives that the company aims to raise about $5 billion to finance the refinery expansion. George Elombi, the new president of the African Export-Import Bank, said in October that the lender is reviewing potential involvement.
Project targets $55 billion revenue
When fully completed, the refinery could become the world’s largest, surpassing India’s Jamnagar complex. The operation is projected to generate up to $55 billion a year in revenue, strengthen Nigeria’s foreign-exchange reserves by cutting fuel imports, and raise polypropylene capacity to 2.4 million metric tons. Power generation at the site is expected to reach 1,000 megawatts, anchoring one of Africa’s most important industrial developments.
