Messrs. Dangote, Rabiu and Adenuga are the only three Nigerians on the Forbes list.
Forbes magazine has named three Nigerians among its 2460 individual billionaires in its 2023 Billionaires list.
The three Nigerians on the list are the President/Chief Executive of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, BUA Group chairman AbdulSamad Rabiu, and Globacom boss, Mike Adenuga.
According to Forbes, the list, which came out Tuesday, with 2460 individual billionaires globally, has a couple of surprises.
This, it said, is more so since the last year has been full of falling stocks, wounded unicorns and rising interest rates for many of the world’s richest people.
Key surprises
Forbes noted that the 25 richest people in the world are now worth a collective $2.1 trillion, down a combined $200 billion from $2.3 trillion in 2022.
According to Forbes, luxury goods tycoon Bernard Arnault’s net worth surged by $53 billion to $211 billion dollars since last year, a bigger gain than anyone on the planet, to climb to the number one spot for the first time ever on the rise of shares in his company, LVMH.
However, it noted that the former world’s richest man, Elon Musk, slipped to second position after his worth was reduced by $39 billion due to his purchase of the social messaging app, Twitter.
Forbes says one of the surprises recorded in this year’s ratings is the rise of BUA Group chairman Mr Rabiu from $7.6 billion a few months ago to $8.2 billion to become the 249th richest person in the world.
With this, the Billionaire businessman and philanthropist’s rating in Forbes billionaires list has again shot up and closed in on overtaking the third richest man in Africa, Nicky Oppenheimer who stands at $8.4 billion.
From $1.6 billion in 2019, Forbes recorded that by 2022 Mr Rabiu’s net worth was at $6.9 billion and from there has jumped to $8.2 billion in April 2023.
The 62-year-old BUA chairman is essentially 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, Nigeria.
Meanwhile, Mr Dangote retained his position as the wealthiest person of African descent in the world, Forbes noted.
After climbing to $14 billion in 2022, Forbes said his wealth is estimated to be around $14.2 billion based on the latest reports released on Tuesday.
This placed Mr Dangote as the 125th richest man in the world and he is easily the largest cement producer in Africa. The businessman also has his hands in other businesses including pastries, sugar and other areas of manufacturing.
For Mr Adenuga, the third Nigerian on the African billionaire’s list, Forbes noted that he dropped from $7.3 billion in 2022 to $6.1 billion.
It said the last couple of years have seen him move up and down the wealthiest’ scale and that he’s now the 418th richest in the world at 58.
“These are the only three Nigerians that made the list,” Forbes added.
Another surprise name on the list is the 90-year-old Nathan Kirsh from the tiny African Country of Swaziland.
He is said to be worth $6.5 billion, thus becoming the 6th ranked African billionaire who is now ahead of Mr Adenuga.
Forbes said Mr Kirsh is believed to be into real estate, retail and fashion and the first time he would be featured as an African billionaire.
Methodology
According to Forbes, their “World’s Billionaires list” is a snapshot of wealth using stock prices and exchange rates from 10 March, adding that some people become richer or poorer within days of publication.
“We 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,” the magazine noted.
For non-founders, it said they previously listed couples and family members together in certain cases, however, this year, they separated these shared fortunes into individual list members, marked “split family fortune.”
For Russian billionaires, Forbes said fortunes were calculated using ownership structures from February 2022, prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and before many made transfers of assets to managers, friends and others in an effort 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,” Forbes noted.