Encomium
Dollar billionaires in the world rose to 2,043 (from 1,810 in 2016), with 195 newcomers making the rich list compiled by Forbes… but Nigeria didn’t record any new billionaire. Instead, we lost two from our army of men of means.
From the five we paraded, Mr. Femi Otedola and Alhaji Abdulsamad Rabiu dropped off the coveted list.
Only Alhaji Aliko Dangote ($12.2 billion), Dr. Mike Adenuga, Jnr ($5.8 billion) and Mrs. Folorunsho Alakija ($1.6 billion) made the prestigious list released earlier in the week for 2017.
Last year before the crash of the Naira following drop in oil revenue, troubled stock market and an uncertain economic climate, our billionaires were coasting easily.
Dangote grew his fortune to $17.3 billion; Adenuga, $11.4 billion; Alakija, $1.9 billion; Otedola, $1.9 billion and Rabiu, $1.2 billion.
But the story is different today. With recession, our men of means have lost hugely. And we only have three on the list.
The same cannot be said about other dollar billionaires across the world. In the last one year, Bill Gates, world’s richest man, made $11 billion extra; Amazon’s Jeff Bezos recorded $27.6 billion extra; Warren Buffet, $14.8 billion more; Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, $11.4 billion more.
The wealth of the world’s richest stands at $7.67 trillion.
