Dangote’s Net Worth Hits $29.3bn on Refinery, Cement Gains – Report
The fortune of Aliko Dangote, President of the Dangote Group, has surged to $29.3 billion as of August 5, 2025, according to the latest data from the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, driven by strong performance in his refinery and cement ventures.
Dangote, Africa’s richest man, is listed by Bloomberg Billionaires Index as the 72nd richest person in the world. He controls the Dangote Group, a conglomerate that owns the Dangote refinery and Dangote Cement. It also has interests in sugar, salt, oil, fertiliser, and packaged food.
According to the report, Dangote’s net worth increased by $1.23bn Year-to-date, that is a 4.4 per cent increase from January 1, 2025, to date. In his private assets, it was summarised that the 68-year-old has $744m in cash, a real estate worth $148m in Lagos, an oil asset, OML 71&72, valued at $497m, a Free Zone land worth $100m, a fertiliser plant valued at $3.02bn, Dangote Industries companies valued at $160m and a sum of $18.6bn in the Dangote Petroleum Refinery.
In public assets, equity in Dangote Cement is worth $5.54bn; $357m in Dangote Sugar; $484,000 in UBA, and $117m in NASCON.
“Dangote owns a collection of industrial assets through his Lagos-based company, Dangote Group. His biggest asset is the Dangote Oil Refinery, Africa’s largest refiner, which began operating in early 2024. He owns 92.3 per cent stake of the project, which is valued based on the amount it cost to build it: $20bn.
“He also owns a fertiliser plant with a capacity to produce up to 2.8 million tonnes of urea annually. It’s valued based on a net present value calculation by an independent analyst that assumes a 50 per cent utilisation rate,” Bloomberg said.
Several of Dangote Group’s companies are listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. “He owns 86 per cent of the country’s biggest cement producer, Dangote Cement, as well as stakes in Dangote Sugar, Nascon Allied Industries, and United Bank for Africa.”
It was stated that his stakes in the publicly traded companies are held directly and through Dangote Industries, a unit of Dangote Group. “He also owns closely held businesses operating in food manufacturing, agriculture, packaging, and other industries, which are valued based on their investment cost according to Dangote Group’s 2023 audited financial statements,” the report said.
It was added that the billionaire owns six residential and commercial properties in Lagos, and they are valued using the capitalisation method, using “rental income provided by Dangote’s spokesman, Anthony Chiejina, and capitalisation rates from CBRE Broll Nigeria.”
“The value of his combined cash holdings in naira and dollars is based on information from Dangote in 2024,” it was stated. However, according to Forbes’ billionaires list, Dangote remains the 86th richest man in the world with $24.8bn as net worth.
Born in Kano in 1957, Dangote’s father died when he was eight, leaving him to be raised by his maternal grandfather, who was a building materials trader. After graduating from Egypt’s Al-Azhar University with a degree in business, Dangote returned to Nigeria, where he started his own cement trading business funded by a loan from his uncle.
He moved from Kano to Lagos and ramped up imports. In 1981, he formed the corporation that later became Dangote Group. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Dangote diversified his operations to include trading sugar, flour, fish, rice, milk, and iron.
After travelling to Brazil to study manufacturing in 1996, Dangote shifted the company’s focus from trading to manufacturing, believing there was an opportunity to create a local operation that would profit from meeting the basic consumer needs of Nigeria’s growing population.
He began building salt and sugar refineries, flour mills, and a pasta factory in 1999. A year later, he bought the Benue Cement Co. from the Nigerian government. He later commissioned the Obajana Cement Plant, currently the largest cement facility in sub-Saharan Africa.
Today, Dangote Group’s main publicly traded businesses — Dangote Cement, Dangote Sugar, and Nascon Allied Industries — make up about one-third of the market capitalisation of the Nigerian Stock Exchange. The Dangote refinery began operating in early 2024 after 11 years of planning and construction, Bloomberg Billionaires Index reports.