President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, on Tuesday gained $5.8bn within 24 hours making his total net worth to shoot up to $16.6bn.
This was contained in a Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a ranking of the world’s 500 richest people report.
According to Bloomberg, Dangote’s wealth dropped from $10.5bn at the end of last year to $9.63bn on January 1, 2019, but grew to $10.8bn on Monday, February 25.
It also showed that his net worth increased by 23 per cent from $13.5bn on February 26, 2018, to $16.6bn, making him the 64th richest person in the world.
He was the only Nigerian on the list of 500 billionaires and retained his position as Africa’s richest person.
Other Africans on the list were Nicky Oppenheimer of South Africa, who was ranked 216th with a net worth of $7.05bn; Johann Rupert of South Africa (ranked 225th with $6.92bn wealth); Nassef Sawiris of Egypt occupied the 228th position with $6.83bn; Natie Kirsh of South Africa (ranked 263rd with a net worth of $6.10bn) and Naguib Sawiris of Egypt emerged 331st with a fortune of $5.12bn.
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In a brief on Dangote, Bloomberg said; “Dangote controls Dangote Industries, a closely held conglomerate. The Lagos-based company owns sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest cement producer, Dangote Cement, which had revenue of N805.6bn ($2.4bn) in 2017. It also has interests in sugar, salt, flour, fertiliser and packaged food.”
According to it, net worth figures are updated every business day at the close of every trading day in New York, with assets categorised as publicly traded companies, private assets (including closely held businesses, art and real estate), cash and other liquid investments and liabilities.
“Stakes in publicly traded companies are valued using the share’s most recent closing price. Valuations are converted to US dollars at current exchange rates,” it said.
The Founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, remains the richest person in the world with a total net worth of $136bn while Bill Gates and Warren Buffett occupied the second and third positions respectively with $98.4bn and $83bn fortunes.
