Aliko Dangote: The Mathematics of $20billion -by Tahir Sherriff

Dangote is a common name in the world, more common in Nigeria because it is also the name of a business man who hails from the ancient city of Kano state, but most common because it is a name listed on Forbes at first as the richest man in Nigeria, the richest man in Africa, the richest black man alive, and now not only the 25th richest man in the world, but also the first African to cross the $20billion dollar mark.

Many shake heads at the unimaginable financial achievement; others wonder how he came to amass such wealth. Beyond SEC, Forbes and the thousands of analysis on his wealth however, perhaps we can look at what this figures also mean.

Dangote is listed to have an excess of $20,000,000,000 (twenty billion dollars) which is equivalent to N3, 000,000,000,000(using a $1 to N150 exchange rate). Let’s look at 7 simple mathematical facts of the billionaire:

1. If Dangote spends over 8 million naira daily, he will need over 1,000 years to spend all his money. Yes over One Thousand Years!!!

2. If Dangote divided his wealth to all Nigerians, One Hundred and Seventy Million Nigerians would get an approximate of the approved ‘Minimum Wage’ each.

3. At the cost of $360,000,000 (National Stadium Abuja), Dangote’s wealth can build 56 stadiums in Nigeria, one for every state, and 20 in reserve.

4. If Dangote was to invest in Governor Fashola’s electric railway plan for Lagos, his wealth would ensure the building of 57km rail lines in 17 states in Nigeria, able to move 600 people from one place to another in less than 30minutes.

5. If Aliko was to invest in refining oil, he could build four of the $5billion refinery in Niger. This would increase production by an additional 20,000 barrels a day. Or he could build two of the $8billion refinery proposed in April which would jointly produce 800,000 barrels per day.

6. Moving around for Aliko is not much of a problem, although this business mogul is driven around in a Toyota Jeep, his current worth can afford over 5,000 Lamborghini Veneno’s, 8,000 Bugatti Veyrons, 10,000 Aston Martin One-77’s, 14,000 Maybach Landaulet’s, and close to 30,000 Ferrari Enzo’s.

7. Or if however Dangote chose to move around by air, he would still be able to afford 57 of the Air-Bus A340-300 owned by Russian Billionaire Alisher Usmanov, 86 of the Boeing 747-430 owned by Sultan of Brunei, 91 of the Boeing 747-400 owned by Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal, or 167 of the Boeing 767-33A/ER owned by Roman Abramovich.

Now this is all with the assumption that all his wealth belongs to him, and doesn’t increase while we doing all this computations.

Whether one wishes to perceive Aliko’s wealth as unlimited blessing from a merciful God, a deeper and more diabolic form of money ritual, or the outcome of shrewd financial acumen, Dangote has no doubt crossed boundaries of ambition into wishes and dreams.