Aliko Dangote who’s net worth has fluctuated since the year began is back to being Africa’s richest man. His net worth in the past few days has gone from around US$13 billion to now US$27,8 billion.
This is following months of back and forth between him and South Africa’s Johann Rupert for the title of Africa’s richest man.
A report by Bloomberg highlighted that the Nigerian billionaire, Aliko Dangote is now wealthier than ever, despite detesting the process that got him there.
“I didn’t know what we were building was a monster,” the Nigerian billionaire stated during a recent visit to New York.
“The pressure was coming from different directions, people confusing us, disturbing us every day with different media stories that it will never work, it will never work, it will never work,” he added.
According to Bloomberg’s real-time billionaire index, Dangote is now worth US$27,8 billion, making him the world’s 65th richest person, a far cry from the 175th position he occupied a with a net US$13,2 billion a few weeks back.
The index showed that Dangote’s last change in valuation came in at a highly impressive +US$15,1 billion, while his year to day change is +US$12,7 billion.
Dangote who at the end of last year inaugurated his oil refinery in Nigeria has been at the center of several controversial episode between the refinery and the Nigerian government.
Since the Dangote refinery commenced operations, several disputes concerning the sale of Premium Motor Spirits, popularly known as petrol have slowed the refinery’s progress.
For starters, there was the issue of the sale of crude to the refinery by the Nigerian government which Dangote complained was too expensive and sold in dollars rather than the local currency.
This forced the refinery to source fuel from other markets even from as far as Brazil.
This would later be resolved as the Nigerian government with effect from October 1, 2024, began selling crude to the Dangote Refinery in Naira.
There was also the issue of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) designating itself as the sole distributor of the Dangote petrol with an exclusive purchasing rights, which limited flexibility on determining prices. Business Insider Africa