Forbes Richest in the World List features Dangote and Adenuga

The most recent Forbes richest list includes two of Nigeria’s brightest business stars. Dangote is the richest Nigerian on the list with a reported worth of $ 11.2 billion (N 1.8 trillion).

According to the Forbes report, the 54 year old married Cement magnate is happily married with 3 children.

The report states, “Nigerian commodities titan Aliko Dangote is also Africa’s cement king. In February, Dangote announced the opening of a new $1 billion Nigerian cement plant, which is expected to increase his company’s production volume by 40% in that country.

Dangote Cement’s capacity is so great that the company has implored the Nigerian government to increase infrastructure investment in time to absorb what they’re calling a “cement surplus.” In late 2010, Dangote listed the company on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, integrating his cement investments across Africa. It’s now the largest company on the Nigerian exchange. He also invested $4 billion to build a new cement facility in the Ivory Coast and is building a $115 million cement plant in Cameroon, plus owns plants in Zambia, Senegal, Tanzania and South Africa. Dangote started trading commodities more than three decades ago after receiving a business loan from his uncle.

He then built the Dangote Group, which in addition to cement owns sugar refineries, flour milling and salt processing facilities. Venerable philanthropist has given away millions to education, health and social causes, not least among them being a gift of more than $600 to each person displaced by the violence following Nigeria’s elections.”

Dangote is the second richest black person in the world.

Also appearing on the list is Dr. Mike Adenuga, founder of ConOil and Glo telecommunications company. According to Forbes Dr. Adenuga who is worth $ 4.3 billion (N 688 billion) is the second richest man in Nigeria.

Forbes attempts to calculate the richest person’s wealth utilizing primarily information based on stock market data, such as the person’s holdings in publicly quoted securities. However since Adenuga’s Glo telecommunications company is not quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), it becomes more difficult to estimate his wealth. Dangote on the other hand is easier as most of his companies are quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).

The entire Forbes 2012 Richest List can be viewed here