Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote gains more than $950 million so far this year
Aliko Dangote, the billionaire founder of Dangote Group, Africa’s most diversified manufacturing conglomerate, has seen his net worth skyrocket since the start of the year, as the value of his stake in Dangote Cement continues to rise.
Dangote’s net worth has increased by more than $950 million since the year began, owing to a year-to-date price increase in the shares of his flagship company, Dangote Cement Plc.
Dangote, one of the world’s wealthiest men, had a net worth of $19.05 billion at the start of 2022, making him the richest man in Africa and the 94th wealthiest man in the world.
His fortune was valued at $20 billion as of the time of writing, an increase of more than $950 million since the beginning of the year. This is the largest increase in wealth by an African billionaire since the start of 2022.
The multimillion-dollar surge in his net worth was driven by a seven-percent increase in the price of his cement behemoth’s shares on the Nigerian Exchange, as investors factored in the impact of the recently concluded share buyback program into its valuation.
Dangote Cement announced nearly two weeks ago that it repurchased 126,748,153 shares, or 0.74 percent, of its issued and fully paid ordinary shares, at an average price of N276.89 ($0.667) per share.
The total cash consideration spent on the share buyback program was N35.1 billion ($84.5 million).
Dangote Cement is Africa’s largest cement producer, with a total annual capacity of 48.6 million tonnes across 10 countries. The behemoth made a profit of N278.3 billion ($677.6 million) and a revenue of N1.022 trillion ($2.49 billion) in the first nine months of 2021.
Dangote has proven to be one of Africa’s busiest billionaires with his automotive company, Dangote Peugeot Automobiles Nigeria Limited, beginning the assembly of Peugeot vehicles at its newly built Green Field Assembly Plant in northwestern Nigeria five weeks into 2022.
Recently, the businessman revealed that mechanical work on his $19-billion integrated refinery project has already been completed and that the plant will begin full production by the end of 2022 or the beginning of 2023.
The refinery is expected to meet 100 percent of Nigeria’s demand for all refined products, while also having a surplus of each of these products for export. It will also create a market for $11 billion per year of Nigerian crude.