Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, garnered $5.8bn within 24 hours to worth $16.6bn on Tuesday.
The President of Dangote group was the only Nigerian on the list of 500 billionaires released by Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
Dangote’s wealth fell from $10.5bn at the end of 2018 to $9.63bn on January 1, 2019. It, however, grew to $10.8bn on Monday, February 25.
His net worth increased by 23 per cent from $13.5bn on February 26, 2018, to $16.6bn.
The growth now places him 64th in the list of the world’s 500 richest.
Joined on the list are other Africans such as Nicky Oppenheimer of South Africa, ranked 216th with a net worth of $7.05bn; Johann Rupert of South Africa, ranked 225th with $6.92bn wealth.
Others are Nassef Sawiris of Egypt on 228th position with $6.83bn; Natie Kirsh of South Africa, ranked 263rd with a net worth of $6.10bn; and Naguib Sawiris of Egypt, ranked 331st with a fortune of $5.12bn.
“Dangote controls Dangote Industries, a closely held conglomerate. The Lagos-based company owns sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest cement producer, Dangote Cement, which had revenue of N805.6bn ($2.4bn) in 2017. It also has interests in sugar, salt, flour, fertiliser and packaged food,” said Bloomberg.
Founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos, remains the world’s richest with a total net worth of $136bn.
Bill Gates and Warren Buffett follow in distant second and third positions respectively with $98.4bn and $83bn fortunes.
