Chairman of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote; Globacom Chairman, Mike Adenuga; Chairman of BUA Group, Abdulsamad Rabiu and Femi Otedola, Chairman of Geregu Power Plc have made the latest list of Forbes world’s richest billionaires.
The quartet are industrial giants who have imprinted indelible marks in the Nigerian economy.
Forbes’ latest list contains the world’s 2,781 billionaires, including heavyweights like Bernard Arnault, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg.
Dangote, 66, Africa’s richest individual, has a net worth of $13.4 billion (in 2023, it was $14.2 billion). His source of wealth is linked to the manufacturing industry (cement and sugar). He is 144th on the global billionaires list.
He is the CEO of Dangote Group. He founded and chairs Dangote Cement, the continent’s largest cement producer and Dangote Cement, the continent’s largest cement producer. He owns 85 per cent of publicly traded Dangote Cement through a holding company. The cement company can produce 48.6 million metric tons annually and has operations in 10 countries across Africa.
Mike Adenuga, 70, has a net worth of $6.7 billion ($6.1 billion in 2023). His source of wealth is linked to oil and telecom. He’s 409th on the list. Adenuga is the fifth richest person in Africa. Mike Adenuga, Nigeria’s second richest man, built his fortune in telecommunications and oil production.
Adenuga, Nigeria’s second richest man, built his fortune in telecommunications and oil production. His mobile phone network, Globacom, is the second-largest operator in Nigeria, with more than 60 million subscribers.
His oil exploration outfit, Conoil Producing, operates six oil blocks in the Niger Delta. Globacom also built Glo-1, a 6,100-mile-long submarine Internet cable to the U.K. via Ghana and Portugal. Adenuga owns 74 per cent of publicly traded gasoline firm Conoil and just under 6 per cent of publicly traded Nigerian bank Sterling Financial Holding.
Abdulsamad Rabiu, 63, has a net worth of $5.2 billion ($8.2 billion in 2023). His source of wealth is linked to cement and sugar. He is 581st on the list. Rabiu is the sixth richest African and founder of BUA Group, a conglomerate active in cement production, sugar refining and real estate.
In early January 2020, Rabiu merged his privately-owned Obu Cement company with listed firm Cement Co. of Northern Nigeria, which he controlled.
The combined firm, BUA Cement Plc, trades on the Nigerian stock exchange; Rabiu owns 98.2 per cent. He also owns 95 per cent of publicly traded food conglomerate BUA Foods. Rabiu, the son of a businessman, inherited land from his father.
In 1988, he set up his own business importing iron, steel, and chemicals.
Femi Otedola, 61, has a net worth of $1.4 billion. His source of wealth is linked to energy and utilities. He’s 2,152 on the global billionaires’ list as a returnee. Otedola is a Nigerian billionaire who made his first fortune in commodities before selling his shares in Forte Oil to invest in the energy business. He is the 19th richest man on the African continent.
Otedola made his first fortune in commodities before selling his shares in Forte Oil to invest in the energy business. He is chairman of Geregu Power, a power generation business, and owns over 70 per cent of the shares.
During 2022 and 2023, Otedola sold down a Geregu stake that was once more than 95 per cent to attract institutional investors. Investors in Geregu include the Nigerian government, the Afrexim Fund for Export Development in Africa, and the State Grid Corporation of China.
He also owns properties in Lagos, Dubai, London, and Monaco, and he holds shares in Zenith Bank and FBN Holdings.