Dangote falls to 104th richest man in the world - Bloomberg business

Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, is now the 104th wealthiest man on the planet, the first time he has dropped out of the list of top 100 richest people in the world, according to Bloomberg billionaires ranking.

Bloomberg explains that Dangote’s slump in its ranking was largely due to the devaluation of the Nigerian currency, the naira.

The devaluation of the Naira against the dollar from about 198 to about 300, is projected to have eroded about a quarter of Dangote’s wealth even as he continues to invest heavily in Nigeria. His latest investment being a $12 million oil refinery and petrochemical plant in Nigeria’s commercial capital, Lagos.

According to Bloomberg billionaires, Dangote, who was worth $15.4 billion (N3.05 trillion) in March, is now worth $11.1 billion (N3.3 trillion) – richer in naira but poorer in dollar terms.

As per the rankings however, Dangote who owns the second largest sugar-refinery in the world, remains ahead of American billionaires, Donald Trump and Oprah Winfrey, the latter is also ranked the second richest black woman in the world.

Dangote with his worth of $11.1 billion, leads Trump and Oprah who are estimated at $4.5 billion and $3.1 billion, respectively, Bloomberg further reports.

At the launch of the new foreign exchange regime in the last week of June this year, Dangote fell from number 46 on the world billionaire list to 71 and has continued to drop as the Naira continues its journey down.

According to Forbes ‘The World’s Billionaire’ rankings, the Kano born business mogul had a net worth of $12.7 billion dollars and was the 51st richest man in the world, the first on the African continent and 71st most powerful man in the world in 2015.