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Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, has moved up in the world billionaires’ list as he emerged 96th richest person in the world as against his previous ranking of 103.
Dangote, with an estimated worth of $14.8 billion, remains the richest man in Africa for the eighth year running. He was the only Nigerian on the list of the top 100 billionaires released by Bloomberg in its yearly billionaires’ list.
Jeff Bezos remains the richest person in the world with an estimated worth of $115 billion. Bill Gates and Bernard Arnault followed as second and third with $11.3 billion and $105 billion respectively. Warren Buffett was the fourth with $89.3 billion on the world billionaires list.
Dangote’s estimated worth in the latest Bloomberg ranking surpassed an earlier ranking by the Forbes Magazine, which placed his fortune at $10.8 billion in the 2019 Forbes Africa’s Billionaires’ list released recently. Although he retained his position as the richest African for the eighth consecutive year on the Forbes list as well.
Africa’s richest man, with his improved worth of $14.8 billion, sits on Dangote Industries Limited, a closely held conglomerate.
The Lagos based company owns sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest cement producer, Dangote Cement, which had revenue of N901.2 billion naira ($2.5 billion) in 2018. It also has interests in sugar, salt, flour, fertiliser and packaged food.
It would be recalled that Dangote was also recently named as the sixth most charitable man in the World by Richtopia, a digital periodical company that covers business, economics, and financial news, based in the United Kingdom. This recognition came after he endowed his foundation, the Aliko Dangote Foundation (ADF) to the tune of $1.25 billion.
Warren Buffett, Bill Gates and J.K Rowlings occupied the first three positions on the World Charitable lists, while Oprah Winfrey and Elon Musk occupied the fourth and fifth positions respectively. Apart from Dangote, Tony Elumelu, Chairman of United Bank for Africa(UBA) was 11th on the list and both of them were the only Nigerians on the list.
Dangote started his foundation in 1981, with a mission to enhance opportunities for social change through strategic investments that improve health and wellbeing, promote quality education and broaden economic empowerment opportunity.
Aliko Dangote Foundation was however incorporated in 1994 as a charity in Lagos, Nigeria. Twenty years later, the foundation has become the largest private foundation in sub Saharan Africa, with the largest endowment by a single African donor.
The primary focus of Aliko Dangote Foundation is health and nutrition, supported by wrap-around interventions in education, empowerment and humanitarian relief.