They have transmuted from just being entrepreneurs with interest in a particular business to becoming respected and renowned empire builders. Without a scintilla of doubt, Nigeria is blessed with many of such people who started from scratch, kept their nose to the grindstone and turned seemingly insignificant ideas into behemoth industries.
They are the risk-taking individuals that struck out on new paths, rather than travel the worn paths of accepted success, to prosper themselves and their society. They are the group of people that would be sent to Mars and still treat it as a stepping stone to Saturn – the quality of constant invention and self-improvement that has earned them worldwide acclaim and prosperity.
Four of them, however, stand out in the reckoning of the world by how many billions they racked up in the year under review.
Days back, four of Nigeria’s enduring billionaires – Aliko Dangote, President of Dangote Group; Dr Mike Adenuga of Globacom; Abdul Samad Rabiu of BUA Group and Folorunsho Alakija of Famfa Oil – were listed among the Forbes 2020 Billionaire’s List.
The wealth-tracking platform, which provides ongoing updates on the net worth and ranking of each individual confirmed by Forbes to be a billionaire, ranked Dangote with a fortune of $10.1billion as the World’s Richest Black Person and Africa’s Richest as Adenuga came in second in Nigeria and third in Africa with a net worth of $7.7billion while Rabiu’s USD3.13bn fortune saw him move up eight places from last year’s ranking to the third richest person in Nigeria and eighth in Africa.
Alakija’s estimated $1billion fortune saw her listed as the Number 20th in Africa. Interestingly, among the quartet, only Samad saw an increase in his fortunes from the previous year. In January, he merged his Obu Cement Company with the publicly listed Cement Company of Northern Nigeria (CCNN) where he had controlling shares. The new entity listed as BUA Cement Plc on the Nigeria Stock Exchange became the third largest entity on the exchange with N1.18 trillion market capitalization.
According to Forbes, only eight of Africa’s 54 nations have billionaires in the Global billionaire’s list. Egypt and South Africa are tied with five billionaires each; Nigeria has four; Morocco has two while Zimbabwe and Tanzania have one billionaire each. In the list, Africa’s 20 wealthiest people are richer in 2019 than 2018 with combined worth at $73.4 billion.
The magazine said the list was generated after the billionaires’ net worth was calculated using stock prices and currency exchange rates from the close of business on Friday, January 10, 2020. “To value privately-held businesses, we couple estimates of revenues or profits with prevailing price-to-sales or price-to-earnings ratios for similar public companies. Some listed members grow richer or poorer within weeks or days of our measurement date.” Forbes statement further added.
