Peter Okoye, PBA Journalism Mentee
Three Nigerians have made the list of the recent Forbes World billionaires ranking for 2023. The list, which came out on Tuesday, has a total of 2,460 billionaires globally, but with a couple of surprises.
Last year was characterized by falling stocks, wounded unicorns and rising interest rates which translated into a down year for many of the world’s richest people. The 25 richest people in the world are worth a collective $2.1 trillion, down a combined $200 billion from $2.3 trillion in 2022.
Join our WhatsApp ChannelThe Luxury goods tycoon, Bernard Arnault‘s net worth streamed by $53 billion to $211 billion since last year, a bigger gain than anyone on the planet, which saw him occupy the number one spot for the first time on the rise of share in his company, LVMH.
Meanwhile, the former world’s richest man, Elon Musk, dropped to second position after his worth was reduced by $39 billion due to his purchase of the social media app, Twitter.
One of the surprises, however, is the rise of BUA Group chairman, Abdul Samad Rabiu. He rose from $7.6 billion a few months ago to become the 249th richest person in the world and closing in on overtaking the third richest man in Africa, Nicky Oppenheimer who stands at $8.4 billion Dollars. Rabiu’s latest worth is put at $8.2 billion dollars.
From $1.6 billion in 2019, Forbes reported that by 2022 his net worth was at $6.9 billion dollars and from there has jumped to $8.2 billion in April 2023.
The 62-year-old Abdul Samad Rabiu is basically into cement and sugar as well as real estate and is building sub-Saharan Africa’s second-largest refinery and petrochemicals plant in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria.
Aliko Dangote has, however, retained his position as the number one African wealthiest in the world. After climbing to $ 14 billion in 2022, his wealth is estimated to be around $14.2 billion following the reports released on Tuesday, April 4, 2023.
He is currently the 125th richest man in the world and he is easily the largest cement producer in Africa. He also has his hands in other businesses including pastries, sugar and other areas of manufacturing.
Meanwhile, Mike Adenuga, the third Nigerian on the African billionaire’s list, slipped from $7.3 billion in 2022 to $ 6.1 billion. The last couple of years has seen him move up and down the wealthiest’ scale. He’s now the 418th richest in the world at 58 years old.
These are the only three Nigerians that made the list.
One other surprise name on the list however is 90-year-old Nathan Kirsh from one of the small African Countries of Swaziland. He is said to be worth $6.5 billion, thereby becoming the 6th ranked African billionaire, now above Mike Adenuga. He is said to be into real estate retail and fashion.
It was the first time he was featured as an African billionaire.
According to Forbes, the organiser of the “World’s Billionaires List is a snapshot of wealth using stock prices and exchange rates method from 10th March 2023. Some people become richer or poorer within days of publication. We do list individuals rather than multigenerational families who share fortunes, though we include wealth belonging to a billionaire’s spouse and children if that person is the founder of the fortune.
“For non-founders, we previously listed couples and family members together in certain cases; this year, we separated these shared fortunes into individual list members, marked “split family fortune.” For Russian billionaires, fortunes were calculated using ownership structures from February 2022, before Russia invaded Ukraine and before many made transfers of assets to managers, friends and others to protect their holdings from sanctions.
“We value a variety of assets, including private companies, real estate, art and more. We don’t pretend to know each billionaire’s private balance sheet (though some provide it). When documentation isn’t supplied or available, we discount fortunes”.
