Dangote loses N140bn in 24 hours

Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, on Monday lost N141 billion, following intense pressure of global markets as a result of ripples from the Chinese economic crisis.

Dangote joins a long list of billionaires whose fortunes have tumbled over the past few days.

The president of Dangote group lost $708.6 million (140 billion) as Chinese stocks sank lower after a rout on August 24 that the official state news agency, Xinhua, dubbed “Black Monday”.

According to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index, Dangote gained $79.2m (N15.6bn) gain from Thursday to Friday last week, only to lose the same amount about nine times over.

The 58-year-old was just one of 197 billionaires who lost billions of dollars in 24 hours, with only three of the world’s top 200 billionaires making gain on Black Monday.

Wang Jianlin, Asia’s richest man, and Bill Gates, the world’s richest man, lost $3.6 billion and $3.2 billion respectively as the worst-hit billionaires on Monday.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder, lost $1.7 billion, placing him behind Warren Buffet, world number three billion, who lost $2 billion.

The only three gainers were Alwaleed al-Saud, a Saudi business magnate; Tadashi Yanai, founder of Japanese Fast Retailing; and Petr Kellner, a Czech businessman. they gained $169 million, $105.5 million and and 87.3 million respectively.

In a meeting with Ban Ki Moon, United Nations (UN) secretary-general, on Monday, Dangote had said he did not want to be known only as Africa’s richest man, but also as the continent’s most generous philanthropist.