Billionaire Aliko Dangote has seen his wealth practically double to $23.9 billion, in response to Forbes, which ranks the Nigerian entrepreneur because the wealthiest individual in Africa and 86th on the earth. It could be recalled that Forbes ranked Aliko Dangote because the 144th richest individual on the earth in 2024 with $13.4 billion.
Forbes estimates Dangote’s internet price at $23.9 billion, primarily on account of his 92.3 % stake in Dangote Petroleum Refinery & Petrochemicals. At 67 years outdated, Dangote is as soon as once more one of many prime 100 richest people worldwide, a place he has not held since 2018, in response to the Forbes Actual-Time Billionaires Record.
This locations him considerably forward of South African Johann Rupert, who’s ranked 161st on the earth with an estimated wealth of $14.4 billion and really far above Mike Adenuga, who’s the second richest in Nigeria and 481, on the earth, with a internet price of $6.8 billion.
Dangote disrupted the federal government’s oil monopoly by establishing the biggest petroleum refinery in Africa. After 11 years, a $23 billion funding, and quite a few challenges, the Dangote Refinery started operations final 12 months. Positioned on an unlimited 6,200-acre website within the Lekki Free Zone, the refinery, at full capability, will course of a exceptional 650,000 barrels per day (b/d), making it the seventh-largest refinery on the earth and the biggest in Africa. Moreover, the refinery’s adjoining petrochemical complicated has an annual manufacturing capability of three million metric tons of urea, making it Africa’s largest fertiliser producer.
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The Dangote Refinery is already having a big affect on international power markets. Imports of petroleum into Nigeria are on observe to succeed in an eight-year low, affecting European refiners which have historically offered to Nigeria, in response to power intelligence agency Vortexa. Moreover, Nigeria has turn into a internet exporter of jet gasoline, naphtha (a solvent utilized in varnishes, laundry soaps, and cleansing fluids), and gasoline oil, in response to S&P World.
Dangote sees the refinery as half of a bigger imaginative and prescient to remodel Nigeria, one of many world’s largest crude oil producers, into a serious producer of refined petroleum merchandise. This might allow Nigeria to compete with European refineries and provide gasoline to Nigerian customers.
“I need to present a blueprint for industrialisation throughout Africa,” Dangote says in an interview with Forbes. “We’ve got to construct our nation by ourselves. We’ve got to construct our continent by ourselves, not [rely on] overseas funding.” He believes Africa has lengthy been “a mere dumping floor for completed merchandise,” and his refinery represents “a pivotal step in making certain that Africa can refine its personal crude oil, thereby creating wealth and prosperity for its huge inhabitants.”
Dangote mentioned the refinery is the most important danger of his life and with out success, it could have affected him drastically.
“It was the most important danger of my life,” says Dangote about his choice to embark on the mission. “If this didn’t work, I used to be useless.”
Zainab Usman, director of the Africa Programme on the Carnegie Endowment for Worldwide Peace, in response to Forbes, mentioned Nigerians see Dangote as a hero and an actual industrialist remodeling the nation.
“He’s seen in most elements of Nigeria as a hero. He’s seen as an actual industrialist who builds issues,” she mentioned.
A professor of African research on the Soka College of America, Chika Ezeanya, additionally corroborated this view, noting that Dangote is assembly the wants of customers on the continent.
“I believe he’s believed staunchly in the truth that Nigerians want merchandise that he has to supply,” he mentioned whereas including, “Governments can come and go, insurance policies might be modified, however the wants of the Nigerian client will solely develop and increase.”