Since June 2014, Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote has been on track to end the year at the richest level, bolstered by his second consecutive year of income growth in his cement unit.
The increase in the stock price of Dangote Cement Plc and the prices of oil and fertilizers have helped increase the wealth of the 64-year-old Nigerian businessman by $ 2.3 billion this year to
$ 20.1 billion dollars as of December 3, the richest he is ever been since 2014 according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The index of $ 26.7 billion in June 2014 was the highest his wealth has reached.
Strong demand for cement and rising prices for building materials in Africa’s largest economy helped boost revenues for Dangote Cement, the main asset of the tycoon.
Aliko Dangote is also set to complete a $ 19 billion refinery that has the capacity to meet Nigeria’s fuel demand, which is currently met by imports. Dangote also started exporting fertilizers to the United States this year and Brazil after the completion of a plant with a production capacity of 3 million tonnes of urea and ammonia per year. Aliko Dangote was born into a wealthy family of businesspeople in the north, he started his own cement business at age 21. In the 1990s, he switched to the production of building materials and was aided by government policies that encouraged methods to reduce the need for imports.
Critics accuse him of using his closeness to the government to gain an unfair trade advantage, a claim he has repeatedly rejected. Nigeria’s state oil firm has announced in June its intention to acquire a 20% stake in the Dangote refinery.
