Africa’s richest man and Chairman of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has lost $5.4 billion which is 35% of his fortune this year, Bloomberg reports.
According to the report, the loss was due to the massive fall of the Nigerian currency as the Central Bank of Nigeria rations the dollar, to stem huge capital outflow in the wake of Nigeria’s worst economic crisis.
The Index report also blamed the sharp drop in Dangote’s networth on the slump in commodities prices and the devaluation of the naira in June by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Dangote’s net worth is now put at 9.9 billion dollars, a 62 per cent drop since January 2014. Using an average exchange rate of N250 to a dollar, Dangote’s 5.4 billion dollars loss translates to about N1.35 trillion.
The fortune of Africa's richest person has slumped by $5.4 billion in 2016 https://t.co/1OIM9rFlX8 pic.twitter.com/URl5e9cKP5
— Bloomberg (@business) August 31, 2016
With his huge loss, the continent’s second-wealthiest person, South African Christo Wiese, trails Aliko Dangote by $2.8 billion with his fortune climbing 12 percent this year on the index.
The Nigeria Bureau of Statistics, has recently reveals that the country is going through her worst economic recession in almost three decades.
According to the NBS, the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contracted by 2.06% to record its lowest growth rate in three decades. This mean the GDP shrunk by 0.36%.
In the Second Quarter of 2016, the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) declined by -2.06% (year-onyear) in real terms,” the NBS revealed.
This was lower by 1.70% points from the growth rate of –0.36% recorded in the preceding quarter, and also lower by 4.41% points from the growth rate of 2.35% recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2015.
And according to a World Bank data, the last time Nigeria had this magnitude of economic recession was under the regime of Ibrahim Babangida, when the economy recorded consecutive decline of 0.51 percent and 0.82 percent in first and second quarters of 1987.
