Billionaire Aliko Dangote loses $1.6bn as cement shares sink

Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote lost about $1.6 billion on Thursday after shares of Dangote Cement Plc, his biggest listed company, fell by the 10% daily limit on the Nigerian Exchange.

The stock dropped ₦149 to close at ₦1,341 in Lagos, from ₦1,490 on Wednesday, its lowest close in seven trading sessions. About 1.9 million shares changed hands, most of them on the sell side.

Dangote owns about 14.65 billion Dangote Cement shares, or roughly 86.8% of the company, mostly through Dangote Industries Ltd., the holding company he controls, along with a small direct stake. The fall cut the value of that holding by about ₦2.18 trillion ($1.6 billion) in a single session, to about ₦19.65 trillion ($14.4 billion).

The company’s market value fell by ₦2.51 trillion to ₦22.63 trillion ($16.6 billion), from ₦25.14 trillion a day earlier.

Cement drags down the market

Dangote Cement accounted for about three-quarters of the ₦3.28 trillion wiped off Nigerian stocks on Thursday. The All-Share Index fell 1.98% to 249,710.59 points, and the total value of listed equities dropped to ₦162.13 trillion ($118.8 billion) from ₦165.42 trillion.

Selling was heavy across the market. Turnover rose 55% to 856.3 million shares, and the value of trades nearly doubled to ₦74.1 billion. Decliners outnumbered gainers 36 to 20, and the industrial goods index, in which Dangote Cement is the largest stock, fell 7.14%. Presco Plc also dropped 10%, while UAC of Nigeria Plc fell 7.85%.

The drop ended a strong run for the cement maker, whose shares had more than doubled this year. The stock started January at ₦609 and crossed ₦1,200 for the first time on Oct. 19, when the company’s market value passed ₦20 trillion. With Dangote Industries holding most of the shares and only a small portion available to trade, the price can swing sharply on relatively little buying or selling.

Strong results

The sell-off came despite strong earnings. Dangote Cement increased profit after tax by 31% to ₦974.8 billion ($714 million) in the first nine months of 2026, as revenue rose 19.6% to ₦3.77 trillion ($2.77 billion). It repaid more than ₦520 billion of loans during the period and ended September with more cash than debt.

The company sold 22.1 million tons of cement in the nine months, up 9.4%, and is building a 6 million-ton-a-year plant at Itori, in Ogun State, as part of a plan to lift its capacity across Africa to 80 million tons.

Dangote, 69, is Africa’s richest person, with a net worth of $55.4 billion, according to Forbes. Most of his fortune is tied to Dangote Cement and to his oil refinery near Lagos, which raised about ₦2.15 trillion ($1.58 billion) in an initial public offering that closed in October and is expected to begin trading on the Nigerian Exchange in December.

Figures were converted at ₦1,365 to the dollar.