Nigerians Lead Forbes Black Billionaires List

• Nigerians Lead Forbes Black Billionaires List

Nigerians are the richest black people in the world as they top Forbes’ list of black billionaires, 2019.

Out of the 13 billionaires of black origin, Nigeria and USA topped the list with four billionaires apiece.

Britain, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Canada and Angola had one each on the list released on the 5th of March.

On top of the list is the richest black man alive, Aliko Dangote, from Nigeria with a net worth of $10.9 billion, according to Forbes. The figure is below the newly adjusted net worth of $16.6 billion by Bloomberg, suggesting Forbes is yet to adjust its figure for Dangote’s new fertilizer plant.

Mike Adenuga, the founder and executive chairman of Globalcom, came second with an estimated net worth of $9.1 billion.

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

Abdul Samad Rabiu, $1.6 billion, Nigeria

Folorunsho Alakija, $1.1 billion, Nigeria

Mohammed Ibrahim, $1.1 billion, British

Nigeria is the largest economy in Africa with almost 200 million people but about 87 million of that number lives in extreme poverty and that number, according to Brookings Institution, will rise to 152 million in 2050 when Nigeria’s population would have reached 429 million.

GDP per capita remained low at $1084 while economic growth has dropped in recent years from 6 per cent to 1.93 per cent after global oil glut that plunged oil prices eroded most of her foreign revenues.

The unemployment rate rose from 18.8 per cent in 2017 to 23.1 per cent in the third quarter of 2018, leaving 20.9 million people unemployed.

People have criticised the likes of Dangote for using political connections to amass wealth at the expense of the poor majority. Dangote that was named the sixth most charitable person in the world last year shrugged off that criticism each time, saying broad investment in the local economy will boost job creation and gradually ease poverty through improved economic activity.