Africa's richest man loses N104 billion overnight

folarin okunola

August 26, 2015 9:36 AM

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

Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, on Monday, reportedly lost N141 billion following an unprecedented decline of global markets as a result of ripples from the economic crisis in China.

Dangote joins a long list of billionaires who have lost sizeable fortunes over the past few days.

According to Nigeria CommunicationsWeek, Dangote lost $708.6 million (N140 billion) as Chinese stocks sank lower after a rout on August 24 which was dubbed 'Black Monday' by the Chinese media.

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

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

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

The only three gainers on the day were Alwaleed al-Saud, a Saudi business magnate; Tadashi Yanai, Japanese billionaire; and Petr Kellner, a Czech businessman. They all gained $169 million, $105.5 million and 87.3 million respectively.

folarin okunola