Aliko Dangote, president of Dangote Industries Limited (DIL), attained a new wealth milestone on Friday, when his net worth surpassed $30 billion.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Dangote’s net wealth rose by $2.25 billion to $30.3 billion as of October 24.
The wealthy businessman climbed to 75th place, making him the sole African on the top 100 billionaires’ list.
The achievement comes two weeks after Dangote Cement, a Dangote Group affiliate, officially began operations in Attingué, an industrial district in Côte d’Ivoire.
According to a statement from the group, the 50-hectare plant has a manufacturing capacity of 3 million tonnes of cement per year, making it one of the conglomerate’s largest sites outside of Nigeria.
While the project adds to the industrialist’s assets, Dangote has been optimistic about Nigeria’s oil business in the past year, when his multibillion-dollar refinery went into operation.
Dangote‘s refinery opened in May 2023. The 650,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) plant is located on 2,635 hectares of land in the free zone of Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos.
The facility began producing diesel on January 12, 2024, but petrol production did not begin until September 3 of the same year, due to a variety of circumstances, including crude supply constraints.
On October 22, the Dangote Group president announced that the refinery intends to list on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX) and sell 5 to 10% of its stake within the next year.
Dangote stated that the move will be similar to the technique used for his local cement factory and Dangote Sugar Refinery.
He stated that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited could expand its ownership in the refinery after decreasing it to 7.2 percent, but only when the project’s next phase of growth is completely underway.
The refinery also declared ambitions to boost output to 1.4 million barrels per day (bpd), surpassing the world’s largest refinery in Jamnagar, India, which produces 1.36 million bpd.
Nonetheless, the refinery’s recent expansionary measures have caused tremors throughout Nigeria’s downstream industry.
Dangote Refinery established a national fuel distribution system in June.
This was followed by the purchase of 4,000 new compressed natural gas (CNG)-powered tankers to facilitate the plan.
However, significant industry participants have now rejected the distribution programme.
On June 16, the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN) stated that the Dangote refinery’s forward integration could result in a monopoly in disguise, as well as a huge job loss danger in Nigeria.
