Who are the richest men in Nigeria? Keep reading to find out here.
Top 20 richest men in Nigeria 2024: Nigeria has a total of four billionaires in Africa as listed by Forbes magazine. These include; the richest man in Africa and the richest black man in the world Aliko Dangote, Globacom Chairman Mike Adenuga among others. Read on to find more about the richest men in Nigeria and the list of the top 10.
Top 20 Richest Men in Nigeria
Aliko Dangote -$12.3 Billion
Since 2013, Dangote has the maintain his position as the richest person in Nigeria and Africa. He has an estimated net worth of US$12.3 billion May, 2023 making him the 162nd wealthiest person in the world and the richest person in Africa.
He is famous for the Dangote cement and sugar, subsidiaries of the Dangote Group, of which he is the Chairman.
He has been named the most powerful person in Africa for five conservative times beginning 2013.
Dangote was awarded Nigeria’s second-highest honour, the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON) by the former president, Goodluck Jonathan.
It will interest you to know that Aliko Dangote is the great-grandson of Alhaji Alhassan Dantata, the richest West African at the time of his death in 1955.
Mike Adenuga – $6.7 Billion
The second richest person in Nigeria, Africa’s largest country by population is Mike Adenuga.
His company Globacom is Nigeria’s second-largest telecom operator, which has a presence in Ghana and Benin.
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He owns stakes in the Equitorial Trust Bank and the oil exploration firm Conoil.
Abdul Samad Rabiu- $5.5 Billion
Abdul Samad is the founder and chairman of BUA Group, a Nigerian conglomerate concentrating on manufacturing, infrastructure and agriculture and producing revenue in excess of $3.1 billion.
He is also the chairman of the Nigerian Bank of Industry (BOI).
Abdul Samad Rabiu established BUA International Limited in 1988 for the sole purpose of commodity trading. The company imported rice, edible oil, flour, and iron and steel.
In 1990, the government, which owned Delta Steel Company, contracted with BUA to supply its raw materials in exchange for finished products. This provided a much-needed windfall for the young company. BUA expanded further into steel, producing billets, importing iron ore, and constructing multiple rolling mills in Nigeria.
A few years later, BUA acquired Nigerian Oil Mills Limited, the largest edible oil processing company in Nigeria. In 2005 BUA started two flour-milling plants, in Lagos and in Kano. By 2008, BUA had broken an eight-year monopoly in the Nigerian sugar industry by commissioning the second-largest sugar refinery in sub-Saharan Africa. In 2009 the company went on to acquire a controlling stake in a publicly-listed Cement Company in Northern Nigeria and began to construct a $900 million cement plant in Edo State, completing it in early 2015.
Abdul Samad is currently worth $5.5 billion and is one of the top 20 richest men in Nigeria.
Number 4 of Richest men in Nigeria
Tony Elumelu -$1.4 Billion
Tony Onyemaechi Elumelu is a Nigerian economist, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He is the chairman of Heirs Holdings, the United Bank for Africa, Transcorp and founder of The Tony Elumelu Foundation.
Elumelu started his career in Union Bank as a Youth Corp member of the National Youth Service Corps in 1985. in In his early career, he acquired Standard Trust Bank in 2005 and United Bank for Africa (UBA) was acquired afterwards.
Following his retirement from UBA in 2010, he founded Heirs Holdings, which invests in the financial services, energy, real estate and hospitality, agribusiness, and healthcare sectors. In the same year, he established the Tony Elumelu Foundation, an Africa-based and African-funded philanthropic organisation.
He serves as an advisor to the USAID’s Private Capital Group for Africa (PCGA) Partners Forum. He sits on the Nigerian President’s Agricultural Transformation Implementation Council (ATIC). He is also vice-chairman of the National Competitiveness Council of Nigeria (NCCN) whose formation he was a key driver in, and serves as Co-Chair of the Aspen Institute Dialogue Series on Global Food Security.
He additionally chairs the Ministerial Committee to establish world-class hospitals and diagnostic centres across Nigeria, at the invitation of the Federal Government and the Presidential Jobs Board, engineered to create 3 million jobs in one year. He also serves as a member of the Global Advisory Board of the United Nations Sustainable Energy for All Initiative (SE4ALL) and USAID’s Private Capital Group for Africa Partners Forum.
He was one of the co-chairs of the 26th World Economic Forum on Africa in Kigali, Rwanda, from 11 to 13 May 2016. He was named in TIME 100 most influential people in the world.
With a net worth of $1.4 billion, Elumelu is one of the richest men in Nigeria.
Orji Uzor Kalu -$1 Billion
Orji Uzor Kalu is a Nigerian politician and businessperson. He is the chairman of SLOK Holding and the Daily Sun and New Telegraph newspapers in Nigeria. He served as the Governor of Abia State, Nigeria from 29 May 1999 to 29 May 2007.
Prior to his election, he served as the chairman of the Borno Water Board and the chairman of the Cooperative and Commerce Bank Limited. Kalu was also a member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA) and the chairman of the PPA Board of Trustees.
He was the party’s presidential candidate in the April 2007 general election. He is currently a member of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) after he officially announced his resignation as the PPA BOT chair.
Orji Uzor Kalu is among the richest men in Nigeria with a net worth of $1 billion
Femi Otedola – $1. 8 Biliion
Femi Otedola is the controlling shareholder of publicly traded Forte Oil, an oil marketing and power generation company.
Originally a Nigerian subsidiary of British Petroleum (BP), Forte Oil has more than 500 gas stations across the country.
It owns oil storage depots and manufactures its own line of engine oils.
In 2013, Otedola led the company to purchase a government-owned stake in a gas-fired power plant in Kogi state in central Nigeria.
Jimoh Ibrahim -$1.1 Billion
Jimoh Ibrahim is a Nigerian lawyer, politician, businessman and philanthropist. He is the chairman and chief executive officer of Global Fleet Group, a diversified conglomerate based in Nigeria, with business interests and subsidiaries in neighboring West African countries.
His investments include the following sectors, among others: oil & gas distribution, hotels, resorts, airlines, banking, real estate, insurance, publishing and investments.
Jimoh Ibrahim is among the top 20 richest men in Nigeria with a net worth of $1.1 billion
Folorunso Alakija – $1.0 Billion
Image by Forbes Africa
Alakija is involved in the fashion, oil, real estate and printing industries.
She is the group managing director of The Rose of Sharon Group which consists of The Rose of Sharon Prints & Promotions Limited, Digital Reality Prints Limited and the executive vice-chairman of Famfa Oil Limited.
She also has a majority stake in DaySpring Property Development company.
Alakija is ranked by Forbes as the richest woman in Nigeria with an estimated net worth of $1 billion.
As of 2015, she is listed as the second most powerful woman in Africa after Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and the 87th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes.
Other Richest Men in Nigeria Who are not on Forbes List
Jimoh Ibrahim – $1.1 Billion
Jimoh is a lawyer, politician, businessman, and philanthropist in Nigeria.
He is the chairman and chief executive officer of Global Fleet Group, a diversified conglomerate based in Nigeria, with business interests and subsidiaries in neighboring West African countries.
Number 7 Richest Men in Nigeria
Uzoma Dozie – $1.1 Billion
Dozie is a banker, tech investor and financial inclusion advocate. He is the CEO and Founder of Sparkle, a financial technology community and ecosystem.
Before launching Sparkle in 2019, he was the GMD and Bank CEO of Diamond Bank from 2014 and successfully implemented a merger with Access Bank Plc in 2018.
While at Diamond Bank, Uzoma also served as Executive Director of Corporate Banking and Executive Director of Regional Business Lagos & West Regions.
Orji Uzor Kalu – $1.1 Billion
Orji Uzor Kalu is the founder of Slok Holding, a West African conglomerate with interests in shipping, banking, oil trading, manufacturing and the media.
He got his start in business at age 19 after being expelled from a Nigerian university for spearheading a series of student riots.
He borrowed $35 from his mother and started trading commodities like palm oil, rice and sugar.
He diversified into furniture manufacturing and transportation and became a millionaire by the time he was 20.
He hit the big time in the early 80s when the Nigerian military government awarded him lucrative contracts to import and supply arms and ammunition to Nigeria’s military and defense forces.
He was previously a governor of Abia state in Nigeria’s southeast.
Number 9 Richest Men in Nigeria
Jim Ovia – $ 980 Million
Jim Ovia is the founder of Zenith Bank, one of the largest commercial banks in Nigeria.
He is the chairman and largest individual shareholder with a stake of slightly more than 9% stake.
He also owns prime real estate across Nigeria.
Number 10 of Richest men in Nigeria
Bola Shagaya – $ 950 million
She started her career with the audit department of the Central Bank of Nigeria before venturing into commercial activities in 1983.
Her business experience started with the importation and distribution of photographic materials and she introduced the Konica brand of photographic materials into the Nigerian market and West Africa.