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How Aliko Dangote’s wealth depicts disappointing state of Nigeria’s business environment

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Dangote disowns Executive jets, says I have no stake in it

Since 2012, Aliko Dangote has been the richest person in Africa, holding on to the position for a decade and one year. While this signals growth in the billionaire’s fortune, it depicts economic stagnation in Nigeria.

Dangote made his wealth from Cement, Sugar and Flour businesses, and he’s now adding oil to his sources of earnings. Surprisingly, his wealth has only increased from $11.2 billion in 2012 to $14 billion as of March 22, 2022.

This represents 25% growth, according to Ripples Nigeria analysis of his wealth, which is just addition of $2.8 billion, for a billionaire who has been the richest man in Nigeria and Africa in the last 11 years – this reflects the sorry state of Nigeria’s business environment.

During this period, Nigeria has maintained the same set of billionaires, according to findings on Forbes Billionaire Index; Dangote, Abdulsamad Rabiu, and Mike Adenuga, with the only woman on the list, Folorunsho Alakija falling off after her wealth dropped below $1 billion in 2020 – and no Nigerian has replaced her ever since.

For emphasis, India, which is tagged as the poverty capital of the world, a position Nigeria occupied last year, has 140 billionaires as of 2021, making it the third country with the highest number of billionaires behind USA and China, data from Worldpopulationreview shows.

Within the 11 years Dangote, Rabiu, and Adenuga reign supreme as Nigeria’s only billion-dollar businesspersons, the United States top five billionaire list has rapidly changed, with Bill Gates and Warren Buffett the only remaining members of US 2012 billionaires list.

Tesla’s Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, have knocked Gates, previously world’s richest, down to the third spot, while Buffet, who was the second richest in 2012, now occupies the fourth position, with Google’s Larry Page ranked fifth.

Read also: Aliko Dangote loses $1.4bn in three months

To better understand the lack of growth in Nigeria’s business environment, Musk was ranked 634 in the billionaire list in 2012, with networth of $2 billion, at a period Dangote’s wealth was estimated at $11.2 billion, however, as of 2022, Tesla boss is the wealthiest human on earth, worth $266.1 billion, while Nigeria’s richest man’s networth is $14 billion.

It took Jeff Bezos and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, who are the leaders in US tech market, about two years to become billionaires from the millionaire club – Before October 2021, Zuckerberg was one of the top five billionaires in the world – but Nigeria hasn’t produced a new billionaire in the last eight years.

The changes in US billionaire list reflects the weakness of the naira against the dollar, and the growth of sectors like electric auto market, ecommerce and technology businesses in the US, which is still struggling to gain prominence in Nigeria.

In Africa’s largest economy, cement and telecommunications stay dominate, as the government continues to release hostile policies snuffing growth out of the tech space in the country.

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