Africa's richest man Aliko Dangote is worth $54 billion after refinery filing reveals 87% stake

Aliko Dangote, Africa's richest man, is worth about $54 billion on the value of his shareholdings, after a prospectus published this week disclosed for the first time that he holds 87.27 percent of the oil refinery he built outside Lagos.

His stakes in four companies come to 71.46 trillion naira, or $53.99 billion at 1,323.55 naira to the dollar, according to a Billionaires.Africa calculation using Nigerian Exchange closing prices on Wednesday, Sept. 9 and the fixed 525 naira price of the refinery's share offer. That is roughly $18.5 billion above the $35.5 billion the Bloomberg Billionaires Index assigned him on Sept. 6, and roughly $21.5 billion above the $32.5 billion Forbes recorded on Sept. 7. Both are daily rankings of the world's wealthiest people, and both have named Dangote the richest person in Africa for more than a decade.

Dangote, 69, began trading commodities in Lagos in 1977 with a loan from an uncle. He turned that business into Dangote Industries Limited, a privately held group spanning cement, sugar, salt, fertiliser and, since 2023, oil refining. Three of those businesses trade on the Nigerian Exchange, Nigeria's main stock market. The fourth is about to.

What the prospectus discloses

Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals FZE is selling 4.1 billion new ordinary shares at 525 naira each to raise about 2.15 trillion naira, or $1.63 billion, in the largest share sale in African history. Nigeria's Securities and Exchange Commission cleared the offer on Sept. 5. Subscription opens on Monday, Sept. 14 and closes on Tuesday, Oct. 13, with a minimum application of 10 shares, or 5,250 naira. Trading is expected to begin in November. The company may issue up to 30 percent more shares if demand warrants it, subject to regulatory approval, which would lift proceeds to about $2.1 billion.

The prospectus, dated Sept. 7, sets out an ownership structure that had never been published. Dangote's interest sits in four separate vehicles rather than a single name, which is why the size of it has been widely underestimated. Dangote Oil Refining Company Limited holds 79.09 billion shares. Dangote Industries Limited holds 17.90 billion. Greenview International Corporation, the Cayman Islands entity at the top of his corporate structure, holds 7.80 billion. He also holds a 60 percent beneficial interest in Salamad Ventures Limited. The four together come to 104,834,654,430 shares, or 87.27 percent of the 120.13 billion shares in issue.

At the offer price, that block is worth 55.04 trillion naira, or $41.58 billion. It accounts for 77 percent of his total.

The sale is a primary issuance, meaning the company creates new shares and keeps the proceeds. No existing owner is selling down. If the base offer is fully taken up, the share count rises to 124.23 billion, Dangote's beneficial stake eases to 84.39 percent and the company carries a market value of 65.22 trillion naira, or $49.28 billion. If the additional 30 percent is issued as well, his stake falls to about 83.56 percent. NNPC Limited, Nigeria's state oil company, holds 6.815 percent and would be diluted to about 6.59 percent under the base offer.

A balance sheet that has improved sharply

The same prospectus shows the refinery cut its total secured debt to $5.67 billion at the end of June from $6.24 billion at the end of 2025, a reduction of $570 million, Bloomberg reported. The company swung to a net profit of $1.82 billion in the six months through June, against a loss of $282.1 million in the same period a year earlier, helped by higher output and stronger sales during the conflict between the United States and Iran. Net debt stood at 0.27 times earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation.

The plant processes 700,000 barrels of crude a day and plans to double that by 2030 through a $14.3 billion expansion, which the company said does not represent an immediate funding requirement.

Cement, sugar and salt account for $12.4 billion

Dangote Cement Plc is the largest cement producer in sub-Saharan Africa, with plants in Nigeria and nine other African countries. Its audited 2025 accounts show Dangote Industries holding 86.65 percent and Dangote personally holding 0.17 percent, a combined 14.65 billion shares. The stock closed at 1,034 naira on Sept. 9, valuing that block at 15.15 trillion naira, or $11.45 billion. Only Airtel Africa Plc is worth more on the Nigerian Exchange.

Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc runs a plant in Apapa, Lagos that processes up to 1.44 million tonnes of raw sugar a year, the largest of its kind in sub-Saharan Africa. The company completed a rights issue in June, selling 8.098 billion new shares to existing holders at 60 naira each on a two-for-three basis and raising about 486 billion naira, or $367 million, to reduce debt. A rights issue offers new shares to current shareholders in proportion to what they already own. Those shares began trading on Sept. 7, taking the total to 20.24 billion.

The sugar offer closed 102.6 percent subscribed, an outcome that required the majority holder to take up its entitlement in full, because minority shareholders held only 27.75 percent of the rights and oversubscription came to 211.5 million shares. On that basis Dangote Industries and Dangote hold a combined 72.25 percent, worth 995.3 billion naira, or $752 million, at the closing price of 68.05 naira.

NASCON Allied Industries Plc refines and packages salt and makes seasoning cubes sold under the Dangote name. Dangote Industries owns 62.19 percent. At 163 naira a share, that stake is worth 274 billion naira, or $207 million.

Why the wealth trackers carry lower numbers

The distance between $54 billion and the published rankings comes down to one asset.

Bloomberg values the refinery at what it cost to build, roughly $20 billion, and credits Dangote with 92.3 percent of it, so his single largest holding is carried at about $18.5 billion. The offer prices the same company at $49.28 billion and his disclosed interest at $41.58 billion. Marking that one holding at what investors are being asked to pay adds about $23 billion. Bloomberg's 92.3 percent also runs above the 87.27 percent the prospectus discloses, a gap that reflects how little was public before the filing appeared.

Several qualifications apply to the $54 billion. Each share price already accounts for borrowing inside the company concerned, including the refinery's $5.67 billion, but the total deducts nothing at the level of Dangote Industries itself or any personal borrowing, both of which Forbes and Bloomberg subtract when they calculate a fortune. It also excludes assets that are not quoted, among them the fertiliser plant beside the refinery, which can produce up to 2.8 million tonnes of urea a year, along with packaging, port and property interests and cash. Bloomberg counts those. A small holding in United Bank for Africa Plc is left out because it cannot be verified against a current filing and is too minor to affect the total.

The 525 naira figure is an offer price rather than a traded one. Where the shares open in November will depend on how much of the offer is taken up and what buyers are prepared to pay once the stock reaches the market.