Dangote drops to Number 67th in the World, retain number 1st in Africa

                     Aliko  Dangote                             

The President of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, retained his position as Africa’s richest man on the 2015 Forbes billionaires’ list, despite the loss of $10.3bn of his fortune

The list, which was released on Monday, also include four other Nigerians, Chief Mike Adenuga, Mrs. Folorunsho Alakija, Mr. Femi Otedola and Mr. Abdulsamad Rabiu.

Otedola returned to Forbes’ list of billionaires for the first time since 2009 following a sharp rise in the share price of his petroleum marketing company Forte Oil Plc, despite the drop in oil prices in 2014.

He was briefly featured on the list in 2009 but dropped out of the rankings shortly afterwards when the shares of his African Petroleum Plc (now Forte Oil) plunged by more than 80 per cent.

Dangote, who currently ranks 67th from 23rd in 2014, saw his fortune dropped to $14.7bn from $25bn last year, propelled downward by a weaker naira and shrinking demand for cement, his largest asset, according to Forbes.

Despite dropping by 44 places in the world ranking, Dangote still retains the title of Africa’s richest man.

Adenuga ranked 393, with a net worth of $4.2bn, down from 325 in 2014 when his net worth was calculated at $4.6bn.

Alakija dropped to the 949th position with a net worth of $2bn, from 687th on the billionaires’ list last year when she was worth $2.5bn.

Otedola and Rabiu were ranked 1,741 and 1,372, with net worth of $1bn each. While Otedola moved up, Rabiu lost $200m in the space of 12 months, according to Forbes.

According to Forbes, 138 people from the 2014 list dropped out of the ranking altogether, including fashion designer, Michael Kors; Ukrainian President, Petro Poroshenko; Zulily’s Mark Vadon; and many Russians.

The rank of the world’s wealthiest expanded to a record 1,826 this year, with an aggregate net worth of $7.05tn, up from $6.4tn a year ago. The total includes 290 newcomers, 71 of who hail from China.

A record 46 among the billionaires are under age 40. One earthward note: The average net worth of list members came in at $3.86bn, down $60m from 2014.

Bill Gates is once again the richest person on the planet, a title he has held for 16 of the past 21 years. His fortune grew by $3.2bn since last year to $79.2bn, despite a gift of $1.5bn in Microsoft shares to The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in November 2014.

Carlos Slim Helu of Mexico comes in again at number two, while revered American investor, Warren Buffett, took back the No. 3 spot from Spain’s Amancio Ortega.

Source: Punch Nigeria