Africa’s wealthiest man ends the year US$4.3 billion richer

Nigerian industrialist Aliko Dangote ended 2019 US$4.3 billion richer than he started it, Bloomberg reports. 

Mr Dangote is widely reputed to be Africa’s richest man, with an estimated worth of almost US$15billion. His growing fortune is thought to be due to opportune investments in cement, flour and sugar this year. This development makes Dangote the world’s 96th wealthiest person. 

The 62 year-old Nigerian was born into a wealthy family in Kano and got his start in business early on, incorporating his own cement company at just 21. He now owns a variety of companies, including the Dangote Cement Plc: a multinational cement manufacturer and distributor based in Lagos, with subsidiaries in nine other African countries. 

Mr Dangote is also close to completing works on what is set to be the world’s largest oil refinery in Nigeria. In 2019 he purchased the world’s largest crude distillation column from a firm in China and set it up at the refinery site in Lagos. When completed, the plant will provide a substantial boom to Nigeria’s oil dependent economy. 

Photo credit: Time | Tom Saater