SAN FRANCISCO, March 21, (THEWILL) – Only three entrepreneurs made the 2017 world billionaires’ club list released on Tuesday by Forbes financial magazine, no thanks to the harsh economic climate plaguing businesses in the country.
The President of the Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote; and Chairman of Globacom, Dr. Mike Adenuga, saw their net worth declined by $3.2bn and $4.2bn, respectively in the past year, according to Forbes, even as the world’s second richest black woman, Mrs. Folorunsho Alakija, was in the list.
Despite losing nearly $3.2 bn to devaluation of the Nigerian currency, Forbes retained Dangote as Africa’s richest man for its 2017 rich list. However, the net worth of Alakija, who is the Founder and Executive Chairman of Famfa Oil Limited, was unchanged at $1.6bn, coming in the 1,315th position, down from 1,121st last year.
Among those that dropped off the list are Femi Otedola of Forte Oil, and the founder of BUA Group, Abdulsamad Rabiu, who fell off the billionaire list due to the fall in oil prices and devaluation of the naira.
“While Otedola fell off the list as a result of the crash in share price of his oil company, Forte Oil, a devaluation of the Nigerian currency, was blamed for Rabiu’s ousting,” the magazine said.
Alakija and American media mogul, Oprah Winfrey, are the only black female billionaires on the list, as the number of black billionaires shrank from 12 in 2016 to 10 in 2017.
Apart from Dangote, Nigerians who made the list last year were Adenuga ($10 billion), Otedola ($1.8 billion), Alakija ($1.6 billion) and Rabiu ($1.1 billion), and they came in at 103, 1,011, 1,121 and 1,577 respectively.
But in 2017, the only Nigerians left on the list in 2017 were: Dangote ($12.2 billion), Adenuga ($5.8 billion) and Alakija ($1.6 billion), who came in at 105, 250, and 1,290 on the global ranking.
The rankings also show that Dangote and Adenuga remain richer than US President, Donald Trump, who lost about $1 billion in last year’s rating – three times less than what Dangote lost.
On the other hand Alakija upstaged Mo Ibrahim, Africa’s “leadership” billionaire, and Michael Jordan, one of the world’s finest basket ballers, to the 1,290 spot. With $1.1 billion, Ibrahim came in at 1,795, while Jordan clinched the 1,567 spot with $1.3 billion.
