Forbes, publishers of the world’s most recognised and prestigious annual list of billionaires recently released its 2019 list of black billionaires comprising 13 billionaires of black origin around the world. Nigeria and USA topped the list with 4 billionaires apiece while Zimbabwe, Angola, South Africa, Canada and Britain had one representative each on the list released by Forbes on the 5th of March, 2019.
Top on the list is, Aliko Dangote with a networth of $10.9 billion, according to Forbes – a fortune made from Sugar, Cement and flour production. Dangote is building an oil refinery to produce 6500,000 barrels a day when it finally comes on steam years from now.
Mike Adenuga follows closely with an estimate of $9.1 billion. Adenuga is the Founder and Executive Chairman of Globacom, a Nigerian mobile phone network, Conoil, one of Nigeria’s first indigenous oil exploration companies in the early 90s and Cobblestone Properties, with hundreds of prime residential and commercial property all over Nigeria.
Third amongst the Nigerians Abdul Samad Rabiu, Founder and Executive Chairman of BUA Group, a Nigerian conglomerate with interests in sugar refining, cement production, real estate, steel, port concessions, manufacturing, oil gas and shipping, who is Africa’s 16th richest billionaire with estimated wealth of USD1.6 billion. Abdul Samad recently merged his privately owned 1.5 million metric tonnes Kalambaina Cement Company with listed firm the 500,000 mtpa Cement Company of Northern Nigeria (CCNN), which he controlled as Chairman of the Board of Directors in a $1.1billion transaction in 2018.
Also on the list is Nigeria’s first female billionaire Folorunsho Alakija with a net worth of $1.1 billion. Alakija is the founder of Famfa Oil, a Nigerian company that owns a lucrative oil block on the Agbami deep-water oilfield in Nigeria.
Others are: Robert Smith, $5 billion, American; David Steward, $ 3 billion, American; Oprah Winfrey, $2.5 billion, American; Strive Masiyiwa, $2.4 billion, Zimbabwean; Isabel Dos Santos, $2.3 billion, Angolan; Patrice Motsepe, $2.3 billion, South African; Michael Jordan, $1.9 billion, American; Michael Lee-Chin, $1.9 billion, Canadian and Mohammed Ibrahim, $1.1 billion, British.
Alakija of Nigeria and Oprah Winfrey of the US and Angolan investor Isabel dos Santos are the only black female billionaires in the world.
The Forbes Annual Billionaire list is the most prestigious and recognized platform that measures the wealth of the world’s richest every year.
