Dike Onwuamaeze
The Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has been ranked the world’s 96th richest man in 2019 by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index (BBI), which was released yesterday. The index estimated his net worth at $14.8 billion.
According to the BBI, Dangote’s fortune improved by $4.3 billion in 2019, largely driven by his investments in cement, flour and sugar.
Dangote’s journey to the club of world richest people was phenomenal. In March 2010, his net worth was estimated at $2.1 billion while Forbes in 2019, estimated his net worth at nearly $9 billion.
An article by Bloomberg in early part of 2019 on Dangote Group stated that four public quoted companies of the group accounted for one third of the value of the Nigerian Stock Exchange. “While shares of Dangote Cement tumbled 26 per cent in 2018 amid a sell-off in emerging markets, the group’s fertilizer plant has helped boost Dangote’s net worth to $17 billion (in 2018) according to BBI. But no value was attributed to the refinery in the Bloomberg’s analysis because it’s still under construction.”
The Bloomberg article also stated: “If all goes according to plan, the Dangote Group’s petro-chemical complex will immortalize Dangote as Africa’s most prominent industrialist, vaulting Dangote Industries’ annual revenue from $4 billion to about $30 billion, roughly eight per cent of Nigeria’s gross domestic product.”
Dangote is hopeful that the refinery might commence production in 2020: “By 2020, I will finally dispatch oil.”
The group is currently building one of the largest petroleum refineries in the world in Lagos State that is worth $12 billion. Dangote holds 60 per cent equity in the refinery. The remaining 40 percent is debt from both local and foreign banks while the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has chipped in N75 billion for the refinery and another N50 billion for the fertiliser plant.
According to Dangote Group Executive Director for Strategy, Capital Projects and Portfolio Development, Devakumar Edwin, the refinery is the world largest single train petroleum refinery with capacity to process 600,000 barrels per day.
At completion, the refinery will have capacity to meet Nigeria’s total demand for refined petroleum products and still export to foreign markets.
Dangote Group’s fertilizer plant is also the largest in Africa and probably the biggest in the world today.
