Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, saw his fortune grow by $1.3 billion in less than a month on the back of surge in the share price of his cement company.
On Friday, Dangote Cement Plc, which contributes for roughly half of the entrepreneur’s $20.4 billion net worth, finished at its highest level since 2010, adding to an 11 percent rise in 2022, compared to 7.59 percent for the Lagos-based Nigerian exchange’s main board. To increase its worth, the Lagos-based company recently performed a share repurchase.
Dangote is one of just 35 billionaires in the Bloomberg Billionaires Index’s top 100 who had their wealth increase in January. Gautam Adani, India’s second richest man, is up the most, up $13 billion to $89.5 billion.
The Nigerian cement tycoon is set to boost his wealth by completing a $19 billion refinery project scheduled to start operations this year. The 650,000 barrels a day crude processor has enough capacity to meet all the domestic fuel needs of Africa’s largest crude producer, while also boosting exports.
Dangote was born into a wealthy Muslim family of traders in the north, which set him up for starting his own business selling cement at 21. He shifted to manufacturing the building material in the 1990s, helped by government policies that encouraged ways to reduce the need for imports.
