Dangote, world's 334th richest

Dangote, world's 334th richest
Written by Omoh Gabriel, Business Editor Friday, 07 March 2008
BUSINESS mogul, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, is the world’s 334th richest man, according to a survey published by Forbes, an American magazine which lists 1,000 billionaires across the globe.

Dangote made the list with a $3.3 billion net worth. He is the only Nigerian on the list and the first time a Nigerian is making the (dollar) billionaire club. He is one of the seven Africans listed. According to Forbes, “for billionaires with publicly quoted fortunes, net worths were calculated using share prices of their assets.

An Egyptian Nassef Sawiris is 68th on the global list and the richest African with net asset of $11 billion. Another Egyptian, Onsi Sawiris, is 96th on the global list and Africa’s second richest man with $9.1 billion net worth of assets.

A South African, Nicky Oppenheimer is the 173rd global billionaire and Africa’s third richest man with a $5.7 billion net worth of assets. Another South African, Johann Rupert and Family, emerged the fourth richest African and the 284th global billionaire with a $3.8 billion net worth of assets. Aliko Dangote emerged the fifth richest African with a total net worth of assets of $3.3 billion.

Two other Africans— an Egyptian, Samih Sawiris and a South African, Patrice Mostsepe — emerged the 396th and 503th on the global list respectively.

The richest man on earth as listed by Forbes is Warren Buffet, an American whose total net worth of assets amounts to $62 billion. He is 77 years old. The world’s second richest is Mr Carlos Slim Helu and Family 68, a Mexican, worth $60 billion in net assets.

According to Forbes, the third richest man in the globe is William Gates, another American whose net assets are worth $58 billion. The fourth richest is Mr. Lakshmi Mittal, Iron business mogul, an India, 57, who lives in the United Kingdom is listed as owning assets worth $45 billion.

Three other Indians— Mukesh Ambani and his brother Anil Ambani and K.P. Singh— are listed as the 5th, 6th, and 8th world’s richest. The top 10 billionaires thus has four Indian nationals.

Aliko Dangote, the first Nigerian to be listed in the exclusive club of global 1,000 billionaires, is a businessman based in Lagos. He is the owner of the Dangote Group, which has operations in Nigeria and several other countries in West Africa. Dangote controls much of Nigeria’s commodities trade through his corporate and political connections.

Business career

The Dangote Group, originally a small trading firm founded in 1977, is now a multi-billion naira conglomerate with operations in Benin Republic, Ghana, Nigeria, and Togo. Dangote’s businesses include food processing, cement manufacturing, and freight.

The Dangote Group dominates the sugar market in Nigeria, as he is the major sugar supplier to the country’s soft drink companies, breweries, and confectioners.

The Group has moved from being a trading company to Nigeria’s largest industrial group, including Dangote Sugar Refinery (the most capitalised company on the Nigeria Stock Exchange, valued at over $3 billion with Aliko Dangote’s equity topping $2 billion), Africa’s largest Cement Production Plant: Obajana Cement, Dangote Flour amongst others.

Dangote played a prominent role in the funding of Obasanjo’s re-election campaign in 2003, to which he contributed over N200 million. He doled out N50 million to the National Mosque under the aegis of “Friends of Obasanjo and Atiku”, and contributed N200 million to the Presidential Library.

Dangote recently attempted the purchase of majority shares in Port Harcourt and Kaduna refineries which was aborted and currently has plans to build a 300,000 bpd refinery in Lagos.