Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote built the largest petroleum refinery in Africa, and his net worth has nearly doubled. But he has bigger ambitions.
Thanks to a $23 billion investment, the Dangote Refinery began operating last year, and at full capacity, it will be the seventh largest refinery in the world. Dangote, Africa’s richest person, is now worth an estimated $23.8 billion, Forbes estimates. But the project’s success was far from certain: Dangote at first struggled to source crude oil from Nigeria’s state-owned oil company.
Nigeria is already one of the world’s largest producers of crude, but eventually Dangote wants the nation to compete with European refineries on petroleum. “I’ve been fighting battles all my life,” he says, “and I have not lost one yet.”
FIRST UP
A Delta Air Lines flight from Minneapolis flipped over on the tarmac while attempting to land in windy and snowy conditions at Toronto’s Pearson Airport on Monday—resulting in 18 injuries but no fatalities. It comes at a fraught time for air travel following a recent fatal plane crash at Ronald Reagan National Airport, and as the Trump administration and DOGE have moved forward with cuts at the FAA.
Elon Musk’s business empire reaches around the globe, with some 5 million Tesla cars on the road, Starlink providing internet access in over 100 countries and territories, and X’s estimated 415 million global users. Along with the world’s richest man’s de facto No. 2 role in Donald Trump’s administration, Musk’s potential to use his position to benefit his companies and enrich himself is endless.
This is a published version of the Forbes Daily newsletter, you can sign-up to get Forbes Daily in your inbox here.
BUSINESS + FINANCE
President Donald Trump’s top-ranking economic advisor hinted that reciprocal tariffs unveiled last week are not guaranteed to go into effect this spring, leaving far more room for trade diplomacy than Trump’s earlier comments indicated last week. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was one of seven officials ordered to conduct a study on reciprocal tariffs, which Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said will conclude on April 1.
Nearly every major crypto firm has dispatched a policy team to Washington, D.C. in a bid to earn a seat at the table with the Trump Administration. Much of the effort has been dedicated to the Presidential Council of Advisers for Digital Assets, led by 29-year-old Bo Hines. But it now appears Hines will instead form issue-specific roundtables, which means that firms like Ripple and Coinbase will have to settle for ad hoc hearings.
WEALTH + ENTREPRENEURSHIP
After the Pacific Palisades fire reached the stretch of Malibu coastline known as Carbon Beach—or Billionaires Beach—last month, British investor Simon Nixon learned that while 16 houses to the west of his were significantly damaged or destroyed, his home was still standing. The reason for his good fortune? Nixon built the property, aptly nicknamed “The Fortress,” using primarily concrete, steel and glass. “If I built a wooden house, it wouldn’t be there now, no question,” he says.
TECH + INNOVATION
As venture capital funding for fintech startups fell in 2024, our ninth annual Fintech 50 list features firms that continue to innovate, grow and adapt despite headwinds. Three categories of companies primarily serving other businesses—Payments, Wall Street & Enterprise and Business to Business Banking—made the strongest showing, accounting for 31 of the 50 picks.
MONEY + POLITICS
Despite Elon Musk’s counterfactual claims, there are plenty of legal ways that federal workers can become wealthy beyond their government salary: There’s the “revolving door” that includes book deals and the speaking circuit in-between government jobs, which was popular among Obama-era officials. Public workers also get rich via two common paths: marrying well (Kamala Harris) or inheriting wealth (Mitch McConnell, who did both).
DOGE workers are set to receive access to several IRS data systems, including the heavily guarded Integrated Data Retrieval System that contains sensitive taxpayer information, according to the Washington Post. A White House spokesperson confirmed that “direct access” to the IRS’ systems was needed to identify and fix “waste, fraud and abuse.”
SPORTS + ENTERTAINMENT
When stars like Mike Tyson, Future and other celebrities want to enter the cannabis industry, they call Adam Wilks, the 39-year-old cofounder and CEO of the Las Vegas-based CarmaHoldCo. Carma, the parent company of Tyson’s cannabis brand Tyson 2.0, former professional wrestler Ric Flair’s cannabis brand Ric Flair Drip and multi-platinum hip-hop artist Future’s brand Evol, generated $200 million in revenue last year, Forbes estimates.
Several high-profile artists have cut ties with the Kennedy Center after President Donald Trump took over as chairman and acted on plans to reshape the organization’s board last week. Actor Issa Rae canceled a sold-out show at the Kennedy Center because of what she called an “infringement on the values of an institution that has faithfully celebrated artists of all backgrounds,” while musician Ben Folds resigned as an artistic advisor.
TRAVEL + LIFESTYLE
With the premiere of HBO’s The White Lotus on Sunday, Thailand is seeing a big boost in travel demand from American fans. Searches for flights to popular destinations in the Asian country increased as much as 65% last spring after the location was announced. The InterContinental Phuket Resort’s sales director told Forbes he expects “a surge in interest” for luxury travel to the country, as set-jetting—or traveling because of a film or TV show—continues to grow in popularity.
DAILY COVER STORY
The Best Small Businesses To Buy Now
TOPLINE In 2024, small business buyers weren’t looking for dessert. Instead, they were looking to sweat. Fitness businesses got more expensive and ice cream shops got cheaper, according to data from BizBuySell, an online marketplace for small businesses and a division of Arlington, Virginia-based CoStar Group.
Gyms saw their price-to-revenue multiples jump from 0.72x to 0.85x, an 18% year-over-year increase, the biggest gain among 23 small business sectors BizBuySell tracks that had greater than the median number of transactions in both 2023 and 2024. Ice cream shops and hair salons, meanwhile, tied for the worst performance, with both seeing their price-to-revenue multiples drop by 4% from 2023 to 2024.
Price-to-revenues or sales, represents the amount acquirers are willing to pay as a multiple of an enterprise’s annual revenues. While many small businesses routinely change hands at less than one times annual sales, the large publicly traded companies in the S&P 500 index trade for an average of more than 3 times revenues.
The highest price-to-sales ratio among the 9,530 deals that BizBuySell surveyed in 2024 came from bed-and-breakfast establishments which changed hands for a median price of $1.5 million, which was an average of 2.76 times annual revenues. The lowest multiples came from car dealerships, which sold for 0.23 times revenues and had a median sales price of $600,000.
The market shift evident in BizBuySell’s 2024 report reflects a change in how people have been approaching fitness. U.S. health club memberships topped 70 million in 2023 for the first time, according to the Sports & Fitness Industry Association.
WHY IT MATTERS “Buying a small business is becoming a more popular path to entrepreneurship, but finding reliable data on what businesses are worth isn’t easy,” says Forbes reporter Brandon Kochkodin. “Unlike stocks, which trade on public exchanges with clear valuations, small business sales are private and often opaque. BizBuySell’s data offers a rare look at how different industries are trending and what buyers are willing to pay.”
“This year’s report shows a clear shift toward health and wellness, while some traditional businesses are losing appeal. But trends change, and buyers still need to look beyond topline numbers to understand what a business is really worth.”
MORE Why Is Small Business Administration Lending Suddenly Surging?
FACTS + COMMENTS
Sports betting (and its advertisements) has become ubiquitous since the Supreme Court legalized state-sponsored gambling in 2018. Predictably, a recent study shows a dramatic increase in searches for gambling addiction:
23%: Increase in national Google search interest between 2018 and June 2024 for queries like “am I addicted to gambling”
61%: Search interest surge in Pennsylvania after online sports betting became available, compared to a 33% increase when retail sportsbooks were introduced
‘Our findings are a wake-up call’: Says researcher Nimit Desai, “The expansion of legalized sports betting to always be at arm’s reach has outpaced our ability to understand and address its public health consequences”
STRATEGY + SUCCESS
If you’re in a position to max out your contribution to a 401(k) retirement account, congratulations! But is that actually the right investment priority for you? Your first priority should be earning as much as you can from an employer match in your 401(k), and from there, consider the fees and fund options associated with your 401(k) or an IRA to help determine whether you want to diversify.
VIDEO
QUIZ
Weeks after she was named chair of the House subcommittee overseeing Elon Musk’s DOGE efforts, what did Republican firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene do?
A. Volunteered for SpaceX’s first manned mission to Mars
B. Bought thousands of dollars worth of Tesla stock
C. Encouraged Musk to “touch grass” in a thread on X
D. Mocked a reporter’s accent, and called for removing the foreign press from the White House briefing room
Check your answer.
Thanks for reading! This edition of Forbes Daily was edited by Sarah Whitmire and Chris Dobstaff.