Aliko Dangote, who was declared Africa’s richest man according to Forbes, few years ago, is now one of the world’s top 25 richest people. The 56 year old billionaire is now associated with the likes of Google’s Sergey Brin and Larry Page and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos.
Earlier this year, Forbes released its list of global billionaires. At the time, Mr. Dangote ranked number 46 but his wealth has since soared from $16.1 billion to over $20 billion thanks to a leap in the stock value of his largest holding, Dangote Cement in which he owns a 93% stake.
As one of the top 25 richest people in the world, his wealth currently exceeds that of India’s Lakshmi Mittal, CEO of Arcelor Mittal, the world’s largest steelmaking company and billionaire investor, Carl Icahn.
The new valuation makes Dangote Cement the first Nigerian company to achieve a market capitalization of over $20 billion and the company currently accounts for more than a quarter of the total market capitalization of the Nigerian Stock Exchange. In a recent statement to Forbes on the surge in Dangote Cement’s market capitalization, Carl Franklin, Dangote Cement’s Head of Investor Relations in the U.K said:
Mr. Dangote notably told Forbes’ Wealth Editor Luisa Kroll in 2011 that he expects his firm to have a market cap of $60 billion within five years. At present day wealth estimates, such a market cap will skyrocket him to the league of the world’s top three richest – a league that currently includes Carlos Slim of Mexico, Bill Gates of the United States and Amancio Ortega of Spain.
