Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest person and the President of Dangote
Group, one of the continent’s largest conglomerates is estimated to have added
a whopping $9.2 billion during 2013 outgone year. He remains the 30th-richest
person in the world, according to Bloomberg, a global financial intelligence.
While the widely respected media
corroborated Forbes Africa, reporting that the cement tycoon made the biggest
profit in the African continent in 2013, however, it reported that Bill Gates, the founder and chairman of Redmond,
Washington-based Microsoft Corp., was the year’s biggest gainer worldwide as
the 58-year-old tycoon’s fortune increased by $15.8 billion to $78.5 billion
The richest people on the planet got even richer in 2013, adding $524
billion to their collective net worth, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires
Index, a daily ranking of the world’s 300 wealthiest individuals.
The aggregate net worth of the world’s top billionaires stood at $3.7
trillion at the market close on December 31, according to the ranking. The
biggest gains came in the technology industry, which soared 28 percent during
the year. Of the 300 people who appeared on the final ranking of 2013, only 70
registered a net loss for the 12-month period. .
Dangote, it stated recorded his highest gain
from Dangote Cement, which is the most capitalized company on the Nigerian
Stock Exchange, with a 74 per cent run-up over the last 365 days.
However, according to FORBES’s most recent
statistics, he is now worth $22.9 billion, up from $12.8 billion at
the end of December 2012.
While still aggressively expanding his
cement business within the African continent, the foremost industrialist made a
bold move late last year when he ventured into petroleum refining business when
he signed a jumbo term loan agreement of $3.30 billion with a consortium of
both international and local banks for the purpose of constructing the biggest
Petroleum Oil Refinery & Petrochemical/ Fertilizer Plants in Nigeria.
The plants, which will cost a total of $9
billion will generate up to 9,500 direct and 25,000 indirect jobs, in addition
to reducing current volumes of refined fuel imports by around 50 per cent and
effectively stopping the importation of fertilizer. The USD9billion project
will be financed by USD3billion equity and USD6billiion loan capital.
The loan agreement
signing between Dangote Group and a consortium of 12 local and international
banks was the first tranche of loans secured by Dangote, comprising
USD3.3billion. This first facility was jointly co-ordinated by Standard
Chartered Bank as the Global Coordinator, and Nigeria’s Guaranty Trust Bank PLC
as the Local Coordinator.
With the refining
capacity expected to reach 400,000 barrels of crude oil per day and producing a
variety of refined fuel products from local crude resources, Nigeria will cut
its current volumes of imported fuel products by a massive 50 per cent. The 2.8
million tons of urea will be channeled into growing the local agriculture
sector which is essential in producing healthy crops and promoting Nigeria
and West Africa’s agricultural development.
The Petrochemical plant
will also produce Polypropylene which is a common component of most plastic and
fabric products, for example it is used in various forms of packaging, ropes
and agro-sacks.
Dangote had explained
that: “This plant will further entrench Africa’s role on the global map as not
only a valued contributor for natural resources, but also a competent
manufacturer of refined products and fertilizer.
“As a result, several
African nations will be less reliant on importing fuel and fertilizer from
foreign markets, reducing the negative impact of negotiating terms within
increasingly turbulent international markets.”
According to him the refinery will further
create some thousands of job opportunities both direct and indirect and will
trickle down to every family and reduce unemployment in the country.
He stated that the Dangote Group would be
ready to delve into sectors that are capable of generating the much needed jobs
and urged other investors to have abiding faith in the nation’s economy.
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Society
Goodluck administration has offered the platform for business to grow, investors to come in and improvement in the economy. Obasanjo thought it is by closing other cement factories (Ibeto) or denying other people the license to import sugar. Long live GEJ transformation .
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 8:21am,u are d most foolish & unimaginabe fellow that ever imagine,ask Dangote himself people dat ever contribute sometin into his business & life,he will never mention Jonathan but he will stil mention OBJ as one of them,wen Jonathan was yet to know politics Dangote has been doing business,who is Jonathan 4 u to mention him infuencing Dangote`s business,he is just mumu dat were put in power n now he is cllaiming to be a militant
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