They own oil blocs. They control banks. They are leaders in their industries. They are some of the biggest employers of labor. They are officially the top ten richest people in Nigeria at the moment and together, they’re worth about $35billion.
10. Mohammed Indimi
Net Worth: $670 Million
A distinguished and highly successful businessman, Mohammed Indimi is the sole Founder and Chairman of Oriental Energy Resources – a Nigerian oil exploration and production company. He is also a founder of many successful indigenous companies and sits on the board of several privately owned companies encompassing all sectors of the economy.
Mohammed Indimi is a humanitarian and a philanthropist and has received numerous awards as well as honorary doctorate degrees from notable Universities in Nigeria, Ireland and the United States.
9. Abdulsamad Rabiu
Net Worth: $700 Million
Abdulsamad Rabiu was born into affluence. His father, Isyaku Rabiu, was one of the richest and most influential businessmen in northern Nigeria in the 1970s and 1980s. He set up his own business in 1988, importing rice, sugar and edible oils as well as iron and steel rods. Today, the 55year old magnate runs BUA Group, a conglomerate active in flour milling, pasta manufacturing, ports and terminals management and sugar refining. BUA Group also operates two cement plants in Nigeria and reportedly spent $500 million for a new cement plant in Nigeria’s Edo State that is expected to open in early 2015.
8. Jim Ovia
Net Worth: $850 Million
Born November 4, 1951 at Agbor, Delta State, Jim Ovia co-founded Zenith Bank Plc in 1990 and retired as pioneer Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer in 2010 after two decades of leadership which positioned the bank as one of the largest and most profitable banks in Africa.
In July 2014, he returned to the Zenith Bank Group as Chairman and remains the bank’s largest individual shareholder with a 9.3% stake. He also owns Visafone, a telecoms company and in August 2014, he started construction of a $1.5 billion petrochemical complex in Akwa-Ibom in Nigeria.
7. Femi Otedola
Net Worth: $900 Million
Femi Otedola is the billionaire owner of multi-billion naira indigenous oil giant Zenon – a dominant force in the diesel business among oil marketing concerns. His company supplies all the important fuel used to power generating sets of most Nigerian industries and manufacturing firms. These include Dangote Group, Cadbury, Coca Cola, Nigerian Breweries MTN, Unilever, Nestle, and Guinness, among others.
In 2014, Femi Otedola made $398 Million in 90 days as the shares of his Forte Oil Plc surged 176% in that period.
6. Orji Uzor Kalu
Net Worth: $ 1 Billion
Orji Uzor Kalu started business at age 19 after being expelled from the University of Maiduguri for participating in the ‘Ali Must Go’ riots against the then Education Minister.
While his colleagues who were also expelled took the school to court, he took a $35 loan from his mother and started trading commodities like palm oil, rice, sugar, salt and flour. He diversified into furniture manufacturing and transportation and became a millionaire in less than 2 years.
He hit the big time in the early 80s when the military government awarded him lucrative contracts to import and supply arms and ammunition to Nigeria’s military and defense forces.
Today, the former governor of Abia State is the Chairman of Slok Holding, a conglomerate with interests in shipping, banking, oil trading, manufacturing and the media.
5. Tony Elumelu
Net Worth: $1 Billion
In 1997, when he was 34, Tony O. Elumelu led a small group of investors to acquire Standard Trust Bank, a struggling commercial bank in Lagos, and restored the bank to profitability within a few years. In 2005, he merged the bank with the United Bank for Africa and transformed it from a single-country commercial bank into a financial services institution with operations in several African countries. He served as CEO until 2010. He then founded Heirs Holdings, an African investment holding company, with investments in financial services, power generation, oil and gas, agribusiness, real estate and hospitality. In the same year, he established the Tony Elumelu Foundation, an Africa-based and African-funded philanthropy, dedicated to catalyzing entrepreneurship across Africa.
Today, he is Chairman of Heirs Holdings as well as UBA Group Plc and Transcorp Plc, which is Nigeria’s largest listed conglomerate.
4. Theophilus Danjuma
Net Worth: $1.1 Billion
General T.Y. Danjuma is the founder of South Atlantic Petroleum Limited (SAPETRO). In his early life, he had a brilliant career in the Nigerian Army and retired as Chief of Army Staff in 1979. Today, the former defence minister is the Chairman of SAPETRO and also owns a stake in Notore Chemical Industries, a manufacturer of urea fertilizer, as well as a stake in NALComet, one of Nigeria’s largest shipping companies.
3. Folorunsho Alakija
Net Worth: $2.5 Billion
Mrs Alakija started a tailoring company – Supreme Stitches – in the 1980’s after a stint in the corporate world. With clients like former first lady Maryam Babandiga, her company quickly rose to prominence among Nigeria’s high society.
In 1993, an Oil Prospecting License she applied for was approved, making her the owner of one of the most lucrative blocks in Nigeria. Today, Famfa Oil, her company, holds a 60% stake in the oil field that pumps about 200,000 barrels per day.
Folorunsho Alakija is the only woman on the list and the second richest woman in Africa.
2. Mike Adenuga
Net Worth: $4.6Billion
Mike Adenuga is Nigeria’s second and Africa’s sixth richest man. He made his first fortune by trading lace and Coca-Cola after returning from his studies in the United States. He also made key friendships with top Nigerian military personnel and earned lucrative state contracts along the way.
He founded Conoil Producing, an oil exploration firm, which owns at least 3 producing oil blocks and is exploring for oil on 4 others. In 2003, he founded Globacom, which now has more than 27 million subscribers in Nigeria, making it the second largest mobile phone network company in the country after MTN.
1. Aliko Dangote
Net Worth: $21.6 Billion
Aliko Dangote made his first fortune more than 30 years ago when he started trading commodities with a loan he got from his uncle, Dantata. Today, while cement, sugar and flour – the three commodities that built his fortune – still make him a ton of money, he has diversified into the oil business.
Last year, along with a consortium of private and international lenders, he raised $9billion to construct a private oil refinery, fertilizer and petrochemical complex in Nigeria. He also plans to invest $1 billion in commercial rice farming and modern rice mills.
Dangote is Africa’s richest man and the richest black man in the world, and if you combine the fortune of all the other people on this list, he is still $13 billion richer than them.
It really would take a while before someone else dislodges him from his number one position.
The post Top 10 Richest People in Nigeria! See Who Made The List appeared first on Accelerate.