Billionaire businessman is 66th most powerful person in the world

President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has been ranked as the 66th most powerful person in the world according to Forbes' annual ranking of The World's Most Powerful People which identifies one person out of every 100 million whose actions mean the most.

In the business magazine's 75-person strong list, Dangote ranks a place higher than the Vice President of the United States of America, Mike Pence, and three places higher than Philippines' president, Rodrigo Duterte in 69th position.

He moved up five spots from his 71st position in the 2017 list as he remains Africa's richest man with an estimated net worth of $14.1 billion, according to Forbes. Egyptian president, Fattah el-Sisi, is the only other African on the list with Dangote as he was ranked in 45th position.

In Forbes' new ranking, Chinese president, Xi Jinping, is the most powerful man in the world, unseating Russian president, Vladimir Putin, who's now second and followed closely by US president, Donald Trump, in third place.

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Xi Jinping, China's president, left, and U.S. President Donald Trump look on during a welcome ceremony outside the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, on Thursday, Nov. 9, 2017

 (Qilai Shen/Bloomberg)

German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, is the most powerful woman in the world as she ranks fourth, while British Prime Minister, Theresa May, is ranked 14th.

Spiritual head of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Francis, is ranked the sixth most powerful person in the world while founder of Microsoft Corporation, Bill Gates (7); French president, Emmanuel Macron (12); Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg (13), SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk(25), North Korean president, Kim Jong-un (36) and and FIFA president, Gianni Infantino (75) also appear on the list.

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel, right, poses with French President Emmanuel Macron, left, and Russia's President Vladimir Putin prior to a meeting during the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, Saturday, July 8, 2017

 (Tobias Schwarz/Pool Photo)

According to Forbes, people who made the list had their power measured along four dimensions: whether they have power over lots of people, financial resources controlled by them, if they are powerful in multiple spheres, and how actively they use their power.