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Dangote, Alakija top 2019 Forbes’ list of ‘poorer’ African billionaires

Published

5 years ago

January 9, 2019

Africa ’ s richest man , Aliko Dangote maintained his position on the newly released Forbes ’ list of African billionaires, even as he lost almost $ 2 bn compared to his worth last year .The Forbes list , which was released on Wednesday revealed that there were fewer and poorer billionaires on the African continent in 2019.

Dangote ’ s estimated $ 10 . 3 billion net worth is nearly $ 2 billion less than a year ago , primarily due to a roughly 20 per cent drop in the stock price of Dangote Cement , his most valuable asset .

Folorunsho Alakija was one of the billionaires, who suffered a drop in their net worth between last year and this year . She is currently number 19 on the 20 – man list .

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Forbes report that , Alakija ’ s net worth dropped due to a decline in the value of one of Nigeria ’ s most productive oil fields . It is claimed that the decline can be partly blamed on the fact that the oil field ’ s production had levelled off .

On a cheery note , Nigeria ’ s Mike Adenuga emerged the continent’ s second richest man . He is worth an estimated $ 9 . 2 billion .

Adenuga owns Globacom , which is Nigeria ’ s third -largest mobile phone network, plus oil exploration firm Conoil Producing , extensive real estate holdings in Nigeria and a network of 12 , 000 cellphone towers.

His net worth has climbed dramatically from $ 5 . 3 billion in January 2018 as a result of more detailed information provided by him about his assets .

Nigeria ’ s cement mogul Abdulsamad Rabiu , who runs and owns the BUA Group , returns to the list at number 16 , for the first time since 2015. He merged his Kalambaina Cement firm into publicly traded Cement Company of Northern Nigeria , which he controlled, in late 2018.

Rabiu now owns 97 per cent of the list entity . Kalambaina, which operates a new cement production facility , started selling cement in mid -2018. Separately , Rabiu ’ s OBU Cement recently expanded its operations, adding a new production line .