Dangote slides in billionaire ranking as Zuckerberg threatens Bill Gate's position

A few days after his $18 billion refinery began production, Nigeria and Africa’s wealthiest man, Aliko Dangote, has dropped in billionaire ranking.

Data from the Bloomberg Billionaire Index reveals that Dangote, who ranked among the first 111th wealthiest persons in the world before December, has dropped to 128 positions.

Dangote's wealth declines

The billionaire’s net worth also declined from $16.2 billion to about $15.1 billion.

The Nigerian industrialist suffered a loss of about $117 million on Friday, December 22, 2023, which plunged him down the ladder.

Dangote, whose refinery received about two million barrels of crude to begin production, revealed that the facility will produce 350,000 in the initial stage before making its total capacity of 650,000 by the end of 2024.

Dangote refinery receives two million barrels of crude oil

The Dangote Refinery received an additional one million barrels of crude oil as it prepares to begin production.

This new supply, confirmed on Tuesday, December 18, 2023, comes two weeks after the facility took delivery of its initial cargo of one million barrels.

Legit.ng had earlier reported that the refinery purchased the first one million barrels of Agbami crude grade from Shell International Trading and Shipping Company Limited (STASCO).

Dangote has lost over $5 billion in 2023 since the Nigerian government embarked on foreign exchange reforms, wiping off most of his wealth and other Nigerian billionaires.

But despite the drop, his primary income source, Dangote Cement, has remained one of the top-performing stocks in the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX).

The cement company’s share price has traded at a high of N320 per share compared to the N280 per share it sold for in October. Dangote remains Africa’s richest, followed by South Africa’s Johann Rupert.

Mark Zuckerberg threatens Bill Gates's position

However, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg sprung a surprise in 2023, moving from below 20th wealthiest persons in the world to occupy the sixth place on the billionaire’s list.

Zuckerberg gained over $80 billion in 2023 to threaten billionaire and former Microsoft CEO Steve Balmer, ranked fifth behind Microsoft founder Bill Gates. Zuckerberg is worth about $128 billion, $2 billion shy of Balmer.