Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote has significantly moved up in the World billionaires’ list as his fortune increased to $17.8 billion as against last year’s $14.8 billion to emerge as the only Nigerian in Bloomberg’s yearly top billionaire lists.
Other Africans on the lists are three South Africans. They are Johann Rupert and family, worth $10.1 billion; Nicky Oppenheimer with a worth of $7.80 billion and Natie Kirsh who is reputed to worth $7.15 billion. Nassef Sawiris from Egypt is also among African billionaires with a worth of $6.93 billion.
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The Bloomberg Billionaires Index is a daily ranking of the world’s richest people. In calculating net worth, Bloomberg News strives to provide the most transparent calculations available, and each individual billionaire profile contains a detailed analysis of how that person’s fortune is tallied.
The index is a dynamic measure of personal wealth based on changes in markets, the economy and Bloomberg reporting. Each net worth figure is updated every business day after the close of trading in New York. Stakes in publicly traded companies are valued using the share’s most recent closing price. Valuations are converted to U.S. dollars at current exchange rates.
Dangote, who remains the richest man in Africa for the eighth year running, was the only Nigerian on the list of the top 120 billionaires, as released on Monday by Bloomberg in its yearly billionaires list.
Ellon Musk and Jeff Bezos are the richest in the world with $194 billion in their respective kitties while Bernard Arnault and Bill Gates followed with $174 billion and $148 billion respectively.
Mark Zuckerberg was the fifth richest with $135 billion on the world’s billionaires chart.
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Africa’s richest man, with his improved worth of $17.8 billion, controls Dangote Industries, a closely-held conglomerate. The Lagos, Nigeria-based company owns sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest cement producer, Dangote Cement. It also has interests in sugar, salt, fertiliser and packaged foods.
Dangote has not only been known as African richest man but one of the world’s philanthropists. He has continued to use his resources to help shape a better Nigeria and Africa in general.
Recall that Dangote, was also recently named as the sixth most charitable man in the World by Richtopia, a digital periodical that covers business, economics, and financial news, based in the United Kingdom. This recognition came after he endowed his foundation, the Aliko Dangote Foundation (ADF) to the tune of $1.25 billion.
Aliko Dangote started his Foundation in 1981, with a mission to enhance opportunities for social change through strategic investments that improve health and wellbeing, promote quality education, and broaden economic empowerment opportunities.
Aliko Dangote Foundation was however incorporated in 1994 as a charity in Lagos, Nigeria. 20 years later, the Foundation has become the largest private Foundation in sub-Saharan Africa, with the largest endowment by a single African donor. The primary focus of Aliko Dangote Foundation is health and nutrition, supported by wrap-around interventions in education, empowerment, and humanitarian relief.
The Foundation also supports stand-alone projects with the potential for significant social impact. The Foundation works with state and national governments and many highly reputable international and domestic charities, non-governmental organisations and international agencies to advance its humanitarian agenda.
In one of its biggest collaborations to date, Aliko Dangote Foundation started working in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and key northern state governments in Nigeria from 2013 to eradicate polio and strengthen routine immunization in Nigeria.
Speaking, at the unveiling of the new logo of Aliko Dangote Foundation in 2018, the MD/CEO of the Foundation, Ms Zouera Youssoufou said the $1.25 billion endowment, which is for the period of 10 years has made the foundation the biggest in the sub-Saharan Africa.
According to her, the foundation, which largely depended on funds from Dangote group, Dangote Cement, Dangote Sugar, and corporate social responsibility initiatives from the group as well as the founder’s goodwill at a time, will now run its operation independently.
“The actual change happened in 2014; we went from an organisation that is sometimes funded by cement, sugar and CSR projects from the group and sometimes the one Aliko do by himself.
“To move away from companies within the group to fund the operation of the foundation, we wanted to really focus on the project Aliko wants to do that actually separate his philanthropy from these organisations’ CSR.
Youssoufou explained that in 2014, Alhaji Aliko Dangote endowed the Foundation with the equivalent of $1.25billion, making the Foundation the largest private foundation in sub-Saharan Africa.
She further explained that the focus on health is to minimize disease burden through improved access to quality healthcare and nutrition with a particular emphasis on children, while the focus on education is to improve access to quality education for talented young people to achieve their potential.
On economic empowerment, the foundation will support the poor and enterprising talents to increase their income generation capacities, while the disaster relief is defined to be responsive to people affected by disasters by helping them get back on their feet.
Dangote, whose wealth is valued at over $20 billion by Forbes, is the wealthiest man in Africa. Dangote’s business units include Dangote Cement Plc, Dangote Sugar Refinery PLC, NASCON Allied Industries PLC, Dangote Rice Limited, Dangote Academy, Dangote Oil Refinery Company Limited, Dangote Fertiliser Limited, Dangote Packaging Limited, Dangote Ports Operations, Dangote Transport Limited, Dangote Sinotruk, Dangote Projects, Dangote Steel, Aliko Dangote Foundation and Dangote Construction Limited.
His ongoing projects include building a 650,000 barrels-per-day refinery, which will become the world largest single train refinery on completion. Dangote Petroleum Refinery is expected to produce 65.4 million litres of Petrol (PMS), Diesel (AGO), Aviation Jet fuel (ATF) and Kerosene (DPK) daily, when it becomes operational.
