Nigerian billionaire oil and telecom tycoon, Mike Adenuga, got richer in 2016. According to Forbes Magazine, his net worth increased by $2.7 billion to $5.8 billion since December 31, 2015 and no other African billionaire added more than $1 billion to his or her net worth in the past year.
Meanwhile, Aliko Dangote, who is still the richest man in Africa has lost more than half his net worth of 2014. He was worth $25 billion in 2014 but worth $12.4 billion by the end of 2016.
According to Forbes, while Aliko Dangote is still Africa’s richest man by far, he’s not as rich as he used to be. In February 2014, his fortune hit an all-time high of $25 billion. Today, he’s just worth half of that.
Forbes estimates that he is currently down from $17.2 billion this time last year on the back of a Central Bank devaluation of the Naira, Nigeria’s currency, in June. Having shed $4.8 billion off his fortune within the last 12 months, Dangote is Africa’s biggest billionaire loser in dollar terms in 2016.
On Mike Adenuga, Forbes reports that, “the increase in Adenuga’s net worth is largely due to new information Forbes obtained in 2016 about the value of his assets. Adenuga owns Nigerian telecom company Globacom and Nigerian oil company Conoil Producing. While Adenuga’s net worth has increased since the beginning of 2016, it has dropped significantly since March 2016, when FORBES valued his fortune at $10 billion on the 2016 Billionaires List. Since then, his net worth has dropped $4.2 billion, due to the devaluation of the Nigerian Naira and the country’s struggling oil sector. Adenuga was the only Nigerian billionaires whose net worth increased this year. (Aliko Dangote, the richest Nigerian and Africa’s richest man, saw his fortune drop nearly 28% to $12.4 billion over the course of 2016.)”