Four Nigerians made it to the Forbes prestigious 2019 annual list of billionaires released on Tuesday, March 5, 2019.
Just like the United States, they were among 13 billionaires of black origin from around the world; followed by Zimbabwe, Angola, South Africa, Canada and Britain had one representative each on the list.
Aliko Dangote, President of Dangote Industries Limited, who made a fortune made from Sugar, Cement and flour production, and is currently building a 650,000 barrels per day capacity oil refinery in Lagos, topped the list with a net-worth of $10.9bn.
He is followed closely by Mike Adenuga, founder and executive chairman of telecommunications giant- Globacom, a Nigerian mobile phone network, Conoil, one of Nigeria’s first indigenous oil exploration companies founded in the early 90s; and Cobblestone Properties, with hundreds of prime residential and commercial property all over the country.
Another Nigerian on the list was Abdul Samad Rabiu, founder and Executive Chairman of BUA Group, a Nigerian conglomerate with interests in sugar refining, cement production, real estate, steel, port concessions, manufacturing, oil gas and shipping, who was listed as Africa’s 16th richest man with estimated wealth of USD1.6bn.
Abdul Samad recently merged his privately owned 1.5m metric tonnes Kalambaina Cement Company with his majority owned Cement Company of Northern Nigeria (CCNN), listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) and has 500,000mtpa, of which he is Chairman. The transaction was valued at $1.1bn in 2018.
Also on the list is Nigeria’s first female billionaire Folorunsho Alakija, founder of Famfa Oil, a Nigerian company that owns a lucrative oil block on the Agbami deep-water oilfield in Nigeria, with a net worth of $1.1bn.
Black Americans on the lists included: Robert Smith, with an estimated net worth of $5bn; David Steward, $3bn; Oprah Winfrey, $2.5bn; and Michael Jordan, $1.9bn.
Others are: Strive Masiyiwa, the Zimbabwean founder of Econet Wireless with $2.4bn in estimated worth; Isabel Dos Santos from Angola with $2.3bn; Patrice Motsepe of South Africa with $2.3bn; Michael Lee-Chin, $1.9bn, a Canadian; and Mohammed Ibrahim, $1.1bn from Britain.
According to the list, Alakija of Nigeria, Oprah Winfrey of the US and Angolan investor, Isabel dos Santos, are the only black female billionaires in the world.
The Forbes Annual Billionaire list is the most prestigious and recognized platform that measures the wealth of the world’s richest every year.