Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man slipped three places down to 26th in the new Forbes Magazine billionaires ranking. He had occupied the 23rd position before the latest ranking.
Dangote, the self made billionaire and chief executive officer of Dangote Group is still Africa’s richest but his real time net worth also reduced to $23.7bn from $25bn, according to the Forbes ranking.
Other Nigerians on the billionaires list are Globacom’s Mike Adenuga, BUA Group’s Abdulsama Rabiu and Fashion billionaire Folorunsho Alakija.
Dangote recently looked beyond cement, sugar and flour – the three commodities that built his fortune – to the oil business.
He had announced $9bn in financing from a consortium of local and international lenders to construct a private oil refinery, fertilizer and petrochemical complex in the country.
His publicly traded Dangote Cement is also grabbing new markets in Africa, with $750m in new plants planned for Kenya and Niger Republic.
Dangote also announced on Thursday new plans to invest an undisclosed sum in the development of a major coal mine in Tanzania, even as he continues to expand his business interests across the continent.