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Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, has seen his net worth plummet by $2.6 billion. This comes after the US dollar pushes local currency to world's worst performing rates. Dangote has held the position of Africa's richest man over other African billionaires for quite a period now.
Data from the Bloomberg Billionaire Index showed that the Chairman of the Dangote Group is now worth an estimated $15.1 billion after this huge loss.
The Nigerian currency recovery propelled Dangote’s net worth to $17.7 billion, but that was short-lived. The local currency depreciated to rank amongst the world’s worst-performing currencies. The recent loss of the local currency, the naira, has reversed Dangote’s yearly gains in months. Billionaires Africa reported that the decline is due to the impact of the naira’s fall on his 86% stake in Dangote Cement and his holdings in Dangote Sugar, NASCON Allied Industries, and the United Bank for Africa (UBA).
The decline follows a brief rise in April 2024 following efforts by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to clear FX backlog obligations, which boosted the naira’s performance against major currencies.
The report says that Dangote’s most priced privately held asset, Dangote Fertilizer, with a 2.8 million tonnes annual capacity of urea, remains steady at $5.15 billion. Dangote Cement, valued at $6.7 billion, is his second most significant asset. Meanwhile, the president of Dangote Industries Limited opened up on the obstacles that his business faced in the past year.
Speaking during the release of the financial year 2023 results, the domestic operating environment was affected by the election year due to policy changes. A breakdown of the financial year 2023 by the company shows its group turnover was KSh 43.3 billion, 9.5% higher than the same period in 2022.
Lewis Musonye
