Encomium
PRESIDENT of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, 57, is fast recouping his lost fortunes…and in one week, he has recovered $3.2 billion (N544 billion) from his $6.5 billion (N1.105 trillion) loss.
Africa’s richest man and its biggest investor is now worth $22.7 billion (N3.859 trillion), and sits on Forbes’ world billionaires list at number 31.
The fortunes of the Kano-born mogul with interests in cement, sugar, flour, salt, fruit juices and more, swung up and down in the last two weeks, settling at $25 billion (N4.250 trillion) at its peak and $19.5 billion (N3.315 trillion) at its lowest. His Forbes ranking also dangled from 23 to 38, 37 and 35 in the same period. In just 48 hours two weeks ago, he lost N935 billion.
Dangote Cement, his cash cow, has been experiencing mixed fortunes at the stock market, losing over N20 per share. But it is bouncing back as it settles at N205.90 (from N187.11) per share at the close of trading on Friday, November 14, 2014.
On Monday, November 17, 2014, the share price was N205.19.
The stock market has been experiencing hiccups, with fears of a crash reminiscent of 2008 woes when many lost their lives’ savings.
The falling oil price, exit of foreign investors, insecurity on account of insurgency and 2015 elections and crashing naira against the dollar have been advanced for crashing stock prices.
The market is, however, recovering. It recorded some gains Monday (November 17, 2014) as capitalization rose to N11.754 trillion against N11.002 on Friday, November 7, 2014.
| Rank | Name | Net Worth | Country of Citizenship | |
| #1 | Bill Gates | $82.3 B | United States | |
| #2 | Carlos Slim Helu & family | $78.4 B | Mexico | |
| #3 | Warren Buffett | $71.2 B | United States | |
| #4 | Amancio Ortega | $58.9 B | Spain | |
| #5 | Larry Ellison | $51.3 B | United States | |
| #6 | Charles Koch | $42.7 B | United States | |
| #6 | David Koch | $42.7 B | United States | |
| #8 | Christy Walton & family | $40.4 B | United States | |
| #9 | Jim Walton | $39.3 B | United States | |
| #10 | Alice Walton | $37.8 B | United States | |
| #11 |
|
$37.8 B | United States | |
| #12 | Liliane Bettencourt & family | $36.6 B | United States | |
| #13 | Michael Bloomberg | $36.4 B | France | |
| #14 | Mark Zuckerberg | $33.0 B | United States | |
| #15 | Sheldon Adelson | $33.4 B | France | |
| #16 | Li Ka-shing | $31.9 B | Sweden | |
| #17 | Bernard Arnault & family | $31.8 B | Hong Kong | |
| #18 | Sefan Persson | $31.5 B | United States | |
| #19 | Jeff Bezos | $30.3 B | United States | |
| #20 | Larry Page | $30.2 B | United States | |
| #21 | Sergey Brin | $29.7 B | United States | |
| #22 | Carl Icahn | $25.8 B | United States | |
| #23 | Michele Ferrero & family | $24.9 B | Italy | |
| #24 | David Thomson & family | $24.7 B | Canada | |
| #25 | Jack Ma | $24.3 B | United States | |
| #26 | George Soros | $24.0 B | United States | |
| #26 | Forrest Mars Jr | $23.9 B | United States | |
| #28 | Jacqueline Mars | $23.9 B | United States | |
| #29 | John Mars | $23.9 B | China | |
| #30 | Steve Ballmer | $23.4 B | United States | |
| #31 | Aliko Dangote | $22.7 B | Nigeria | |
-KUNLE BAKARE
