Everything We Know About Aliko Dangote, The 'World's Richest Black Man' Worth $14B

On March 22, 2022, AfroTech reported that Aliko Dangote added even more to his overall $14 billion net worth by opening a fertilizer plant.

The plant — located just outside of Nigeria’s capital city of Lagos — comes in the wake of the rising tensions between Russia and the Ukraine, which threatens to cut of the world’s supply of fertilizer. Because Russia supplies approximately 20 percent of the world’s fertilizer, any loss in the supply chain can result in famine and destitution for the population.

And this is something that Aliko Dangote says he hopes to avoid with his new fertilizer plant.

“People are begging us to sell [to them],” he said to CNN. “We are very choosy who we sell this product to. We are loading a ship going to US, Brazil, Mexico, India… The EU are trying to buy from us.”

More than just being the richest Black man in the world, then, Dangote is someone who is worried about the greater good of his people. Proving that not all billionaires are Marvel supervillains brought to life (looking at you, Elon Musk), Aliko Dangote has created jobs for Nigerians (and other Africans) and utilized the continent’s natural resources in a sustainable, and profitable, way.

Let’s take a look at what else we know about the world’s richest Black man.

Editorial note: The net worth listed in this piece is a speculative estimate drawn from a variety of online sources.

His real-time net worth continues to climb

As of this writing, Forbes reports that Aliko Dangote’s real-time net worth is a staggering $14 billion.

Aliko Dangote comes from a lot of money

While many African billionaires, today, are self-made, just as many come from wealth — and Aliko Dangote is the latter. According to The Nation, Dangote’s maternal grandfather is Alhassan Dantata, who was the richest West African at the time of his death in 1955. Dantata made his fortune importing European goods to the African continent and was the continent’s largest exporter of kola nuts. Dangote’s father, Mohammed, was his maternal grandfather’s business associate.

Dangote's wealth surged in 2014

While Aliko Dangote was always wealthy, AfroTech reported that his wealth took a real hike in 2014, when demand for cement suddenly spiked exponentially. This, combined with the opening of his nearly $2 billion oil refinery, netted Dangote a fortune.

He's a philanthropist

Dangote has spent a lot of his own money to help philanthropic causes.

According to Reuters, he gave the equivalent of $750,000 to help stop the spread of Ebola in Nigeria back in 2014. And in 2020, the Dangote Foundation released its stats of all its charitable donations, which included a contribution of over $100 million in charitable funds to various causes around the world.

Aliko Dangote has three daughters and an adopted son

Bernadette Giacomazzo is the SEO Manager at Blavity, Inc. She is also a NYC-based editor, writer, photographer, and publicist with a career spanning more than two decades in the entertainment industry. Her work has been featured in People, Teen Vogue, BET, HipHopDX, XXL Magazine, The Source, Vibe, The Los Angeles Times, and more. Giacomazzo is also the author of The Uprising Series and is the CEO of G-Force Marketing & Publicity, which has been featured in The Hollywood Reporter and has obtained film, television, radio, and print placements for blue-chip clients all over the world. She will release "In Living Color: A Cultural History" on Rowman & Littlefield Press in February 2023, and "The Golden Girls: A Cultural History" on Rowman & Littlefield Press in August 2023.

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