On Wednesday, January 10, Forbes released the 2019 ranking of Africa's billionaires. It includes four people from Nigeria.
What Nigerian Twitter users are saying about the 2019 Forbes' African billionaires list
This year's billionaires club features the regulars - Aliko Dangote, Mike Adenuga and Folorunsho Alakija. Abdulsamad Rabiu also made the list.
Meet the Nigerians on the 2019 Forbes African billionaires list
Number one on the list is Aliko Dangote with a net worth of $10.3 billion. The Nigerian billionaire and founder of the Dangote Group has managed to retain his position as Africa's richest man for the eighth consecutive year.
This is in spite of nearly $2 billion dip in his net worth primarily due to a roughly 20% drop in the stock price of his most valuable asset - Dangote Cement.
He is closely followed by Mike Adenuga, the owner of Globalcom, Nigeria's third-largest mobile phone network, and an oil exploration firm Conoil Producing firm, with $9.2 billion.
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Abdulsamad Rabiu comes after the second richest man in Africa and Nigeria. The Nigerian manufacturing mogul makes an epic comeback, returning for the first time since 2015 with a net worth of $1.6 billion.
His assets include the BUA Group, who runs and owns, and his Kalambaina Cement firm which has been merged with the publicly traded Cement Company of Northern Nigeria.
Folorunsho Alakija is the fourth richest Nigerian and the second woman in this year's African billionaires club.
Her net worth, estimated to be $1.1 billion, comes from owning a stake in one of the most productive oil fields in Nigeria, currently operated by Chevron.
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Like Dangote, she also had a decline in her net worth. This dip landed her on the 19th position in Africa.
Overall, there was a drop as the number of African billionaires has gone down from last year's 23 to just 20. Their net worth also dipped from $75.4 billion for last year's list to $68.7 billion.
As Forbes put it, there are "fewer and poorer billionaires on African continent in 2019."
Here is what Twitter users are saying about the 2019 Forbes' African billionaires list
The newly released ranking has got Nigerians talking with #Forbes being the ninth trend in Lagos state. It currently has over 60k tweets and counting.
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Here are some reactions to this year's list:
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See the full list of this year's members of the African billionaires' club here.
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Email: news@pulselive.co.ke
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