I hear only four Nigerians made this year’s Forbes World Billionaires List just published by the international magazine. And they are the usual suspects.
Nigeria’s richest man Aliko Dangote, who with $13.4 B from manufacturing, mostly in cement is ranked 144th richest person in the world. Next at 409 on the list is Mike Adenuga, worth $6.7 B from diversified businesses including telecommunications and oil production. The third richest Nigerian at 581 on the Forbes World List is Abdulsamad Rabiu, the founder of BUA Group, a Nigerian conglomerate active in cement production, sugar refining and real estate and he is worth $5.2 Billion. At 2152 on the world list is Femi Otedola with $1.4 Billion and he said to have made his first fortune in commodities before selling his shares in Forte Oil to invest in the energy business.
I am told many people are upset that their names are not there. Even my friend here who claims to have billions is not happy. I have tried to explain to him that the billions Forbes rates with is US Dollars. The man just dey vex! In fact, he is threatening to establish a Nigerian version of Forbes Billionaires List which will be in Naira. For that, he will not even be a billionaire but a trillionaire. After all he is the richest man in our community. Everyone kowtows to him. And his nickname is Money King. King of Money. Say it in whatever way you want to.
But the Forbes people are not joking though. Some people who were worth billions last year are not on this list because their wealth has gone below the billion mark. There are also new members of the Billionaires Club. Lucky devils.
Forbes List says the planet has 2,781 billionaires who are worth a record $14.2 trillion. Out of this, 14 people are regarded as members of the $100 Billion Club, an elite group of people whose fortunes stretch into 12 digits. Imagine someone worth one hundred billion dollars. Please don’t convert to Naira.
Expectedly the number one position – the richest person in the world – remains the same as last year.
French man Bernard Arnault, whose net worth is $233 Billion is the richest person in the world for the second year in a row. Arnault’s wealth grew by 10% in 2023 thanks to another record year for his luxury conglomerate, LVMH, which owns Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior and Sephora. He is followed in 2nd position by American Elon Musk, with $195 Billion from his businesses which include Tesla, SpaceX and the social media platform X, formerly Twitter. Remember he was in 2021 the first person ever worth $300 billion.
Jeff Bezos of Amazon is at No. 3 with net worth of $194 Billion; Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook is 4th with $177 Billion; and followed by Larry Ellison of Oracle with $141 Billion; Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway has $133 Billion for 6th; 7th is Bill Gates of Microsoft with $128 Billion; Steve Ballmer also of Microsoft has net worth of $121 Billion at 8th; 9th is Mukesh Ambani of India who became the first Asian member of the $100 Billion Club this year, with wealth from his conglomerate, Reliance Industries; and bringing up the rear on the top 10 is Larry Page whose net worth is $114 Billion from Google.
Women occupy a pride of place on the World Billionaires list. This year 369 out of 2,781 billionaires or 13.3% are women, up from 337 in 2023, when women accounted for 12.8% of the list. Together they are worth nearly $1.8 trillion, about $240 billion more than last year.
The world’s richest woman for the fourth consecutive year is heiress Françoise Bettencourt Meyers of L’Oréal.
The Forbes World’s Billionaires list is a snapshot of wealth using stock prices and exchange rates from March 8, 2024.
SOURCE AND IMAGE CREDIT: Forbes.com
