Meet Africa’s richest man, owns largest oil refinery, cement plant; no match for Mukesh Ambani, Gautam Adani, his name is…, net worth is Rs…

Aliko Dangote is wealthiest man in Africa, boasting a net worth of $10.7 billion, according to Forbes, while Bloomberg Billionaires Index estimates his wealth at $27.1 billion.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is the richest individual on the planet, while India business tycoon, Mukesh Ambani, is the wealthiest person in Asia. But there’s a lesser-known name in the global rich list, Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote, the richest man in Africa, the founder of Dangote Group, which owns Africa’s largest oil refinery and Dangote Cement, the largest cement producer in sub-Saharan Africa.

Who is Aliko Dangote?

Born on April 10, 1957, into a wealthy Hausa Muslim family in Kano (then part of British Nigeria), Aliko Dangote, is a Nigerian businessman who is credited with building Nigeria’s first private refinery, the largest in Africa.

Aliko Dangote is the great-grandson of Alhassan Dantata, once the richest person in West Africa, and the son of Mohammed Dangote, who inherited his father’s business empire. Aliko’s mother’s Mariya Sanusi Dantata, was the daughter of businessman Sanusi Dantata.

Dangote received his early education at the Sheikh Ali Kumasi Madrasa, and later completed his schooling at the Capital High School in Kano. After graduating from the Government College, Birnin Kudu in 1978, Aliko Dangote attended the prestigious Al-Azhar University in Cairo, where he earned bachelor’s degree in business studies and administration.

Trading company to Africa’s largest conglomerate

In 1977, Aliko Dangote, took a ₦500,000 loan from his uncle to establish the Dangote Group and relocated to Lagos to expand his business. Dangote began trading in commodities, such as bagged cement and agricultural goods like rice and sugar, but a pivotal point that transformed his company, came in the 1990s, when he bagged a contract from the Central Bank of Nigeria to allow his transport company to manage the bank’s fleet of staff buses.

At present the Dangote Group is one of the biggest conglomerates in Africa, and has transformed from a trading company to Nigeria’s largest industrial group, with business interests diversified across various sectors, like Dangote Sugar Refinery, Dangote Cement, and Dangote Flour.

The Dangote Group has operations in Benin, Ghana, Zambia, and Togo, and the company dominated sugar market in Nigeria, with its refinery business being the main supplier (70 percent of the market) to the country’s soft drink companies, breweries, and confectioners.

Dangote Group’s sugar refinery employs more than 11,000 people in West Africa.

Largest oil refinery in Africa

However, Aliko Dangote’s most valuable asset is the Dangote Refinery, the largest petroleum refinery in Africa, which became operational in early 2024. Aliko owns a 92.3% stake in the Dangote Refinery, which is valued at over $20 billion.

Apart from his oil and sugar refineries, Aliko Dangote also dominates Nigeria’s cement market, with Dangote Cement accounting for 86% of the country’s cement production, and boasts the largest cement facility in sub-Saharan Africa, Obajana Cement Plant.

Additionally, Aliko Dangote is also in the fertilizer business, and owns a fertilizer plant that produces 2.8 million tonnes of urea annually. Several Dangote Group companies are listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

Aliko Dangote net worth

Aliko Dangote is wealthiest man in Africa, boasting a net worth of $10.7 billion, according to Forbes, while Bloomberg Billionaires Index estimates his wealth at $27.1 billion, making him the 225th and 75th richest individual in the world respectively in 2025.