Table of Contents
Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote added $2.31 billion to the value of his stock market holdings in the third quarter of 2026, as shares of Dangote Cement Plc rose almost 20% on the Nigerian Exchange and the naira strengthened against the dollar.
Dangote, Africa's richest person, owns large stakes in four companies listed in Lagos: Dangote Cement, the continent's biggest cement maker; Dangote Sugar Refinery; salt producer NASCON Allied Industries; and Jaiz Bank, a Nigerian Islamic lender. Billionaires.Africa calculations show those four stakes were worth $12.47 billion on Sept. 30, up from $10.16 billion on July 1.
The figure does not include Dangote's stake in Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals, the 650,000-barrel-a-day refinery he built on the outskirts of Lagos. The refinery opened its initial public offering on Sept. 14 at 525 naira a share, but its shares had not begun trading by the end of the quarter, so the stake has no market price yet. His privately held businesses are also excluded.
Dangote Cement accounted for almost all of the gain. Dangote holds 14,649,030,247 of its shares, about 86.8% of the company. The stock closed at 891 naira on July 1 and at 1,066.70 naira on Sept. 30, a rise of 19.7%. That lifted the value of his cement stake from $9.46 billion to $11.77 billion.
The company, which operates in 10 African countries, has been one of the most closely watched stocks on the Lagos bourse this year. It began 2026 at 609 naira a share. Dangote Cement held a capital markets day for investors on Sept. 21, and Dangote said in May that he plans a secondary listing of the company in London.
The billionaire's other listed holdings barely moved during the quarter. Dangote Sugar slipped from 70 naira to 68 naira, NASCON eased from 197.60 naira to 188.90 naira, and Jaiz Bank dipped from 8.25 naira to 8.10 naira. Together those three stakes were worth about $707 million at the end of September.
The naira added to the gain in dollar terms. The currency firmed from 1,380.17 naira per dollar on July 1 to 1,328.02 naira on Sept. 30, which increased the dollar value of every naira-denominated share Dangote owns by about 4%.
The quarter also brought Dangote a large cash payment. Dangote Cement paid a final dividend of 45 naira a share on July 2, which gave him about 659.2 billion naira, or roughly $478 million, on his cement shares alone.
In naira terms, Dangote's four listed stakes were worth about 16.57 trillion naira at Sept. 30 closing prices.
The intelligence satisfies curiosity. The paid briefings satisfy strategy.
Every Monday, Elite subscribers receive an Investor Memo breaking down the deal, the structure and the positioning behind the week's most consequential African wealth story - the kind of analysis that doesn't appear anywhere else.
Twice a month, a Wealth Intelligence brief profiles a single billionaire's holdings, cash flows and expansion pipeline in detail no public source matches.
→ Executive ($25/mo): Daily newsletter + Deep-Dive Reports
→ Elite ($75/mo): Everything above + Investor Memos + Wealth Intelligence + Quarterly Analyst Briefings
Subscribe now
