Nigeria’s Aliko Dangote, Mike Adenuga, Femi Otedola and
Folorunsho Alakija have been named in the 2015 Forbes list of
billionaires.
Another Nigerian, Abdulsamad Rabiu, also made the list,
while Orji Uzor Kalu and Tony Elumelu who made the list last year
dropped off the list this year.
Dangote, who made his fortune in cement, sugar and flour,
and whose multi-trillion naira conglomerate, The Dangote Group, has
expanded its operations into Benin, Ghana, Nigeria, and Togo, retains
the title of Africa’s richest man. However, according to Forbes, he is
this year’s biggest loser in dollar terms. His fortune “dropped to $14.7
billion from $25 billion last year, propelled downward by a weaker
Nigerian currency and shrinking demand for cement, his largest asset”.
In April 2014, months before oil prices plunged, Dangote
announced $9 billion in financing from a consortium of local and
international lenders to construct a private oil refinery and fertilizer
and petrochemical complex in the country. In August 2014, he said he
would invest $1 billion in commercial rice farming and modern rice
mills. His publicly traded Dangote Cement is also grabbing new markets
in Africa, with $750 million in new plants planned for Kenya and Niger.
Otedola owns controlling share in Forte Oil, a petroleum
marketing company, with a 78 percent stake. The company owns gas
stations and fuel storage depots and manufactures its own line of engine
oils. Forte said its shares rose in 2014 due to new investments in
power generation and distribution.
Mike Adenuga, who made his first fortune trading lace and
Coca-Cola after returning from his studies in the United States, has
investments in mobile telecom and oil production. His Globacom, founded
in 2003, is the second largest mobile phone network in the country after
South Africa’s MTN. Globacom currently boasts of over 27 million
subscribers in Nigeria, and also serves customers in Ghana and Republic
of Benin, while his oil exploration firm, Conoil Producing, operates six
oil blocs in the Niger Delta, about half of which produce oil.
Alakija, one of just two women billionaires in Africa,
owns a prospecting licence for one of the most lucrative oil fields in
Nigeria. Her fortune has, however, been dented by the drop in oil
prices.
Abdulsamad Rabiu’s BUA Group is active in
flour milling, pasta manufacturing, ports and terminals management and
sugar refining. The group currently operates two cement plants in the
country and reportedly spent $500 million for a new cement plant in Edo
State that is expected to open in early 2015.
On the global stage, Microsoft’s Bill Gates still retains
his place as the world’s richest man, while Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg
moved up five spots to be the 16th richest man in the world. 24-year-old
Evan Spiegel, co-founder of photo-messaging app Snapchat, is now the
world’s youngest billionaire.
Others are Carlos Slim Helu of Mexico, who comes in again
at No. 2; American investor Warren Buffett, who took back the No. 3 spot
from Spain’s Amancio Ortega (now No. 4).
“We found a record 1,826 billionaires with an aggregate
net worth of $7.05 trillion, up from $6.4 trillion a year ago. The total
includes 290 newcomers, 71 of whom hail from China. Youth are on the
rise: A record 46 among the ranks are under age 40. One earthward note:
The average net worth of list members came in at $3.86 billion, down $60
million from 2014,” says Forbes.
One hundred and thirty-eight people from the 2014 list
dropped out of the ranks altogether, including fashion designer Michael
Kors, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, Zulily’s Mark Vadon and many
Russians, says Forbes.
Guatemala has a billionaire for the first time, and
Iceland returns to the ranks after a five-year absence, the result of a
comeback by Thor Bjorgolfsson, who’s now the only billionaire in
Iceland’s history, it adds.
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