The President of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, and the Chairman of Globacom, Dr Mike Adenuga, top Forbes’ Africa Billionaires List released on Wednesday.
However, Dangote saw his wealth drop by $2bn from $12.2bn in January 2018 to $10bn in 2019.
But Dangote retained his position as Africa’s richest man for the eighth consecutive time.
Adenuga, with interests in oil exploration and real estate, moved up to be Africa’s second richest man.
The American magazine said Adenuga’s net worth dramatically increased from $5.3bn to $9.2bn because he provided more detailed information about his assets.
The Chairman/Chief Executive Officer, BUA Group, Abdulsamad Rabiu, featured on the list for the first time since 2015.
Rabiu’s Kalambaina Cement Company Limited merged with Cement Company of Northern Nigeria, which he controlled, in December 2018. He now owns 97 per cent of the entity.
The Founder and Executive Chairman, Famfa Oil Limited, Mrs Folorunsho Alakija, whose net worth dropped to $1.1bn from $1.3bn, was ranked 19th.
The rank was a tie with South African banker, Michiel Le Roux.
Commenting on the reduced net worth of the personalities, Forbes said, “Buffeted by plunging stock prices and weaker currencies, the number of African billionaires has shrunk to just 20, down from 23 a year ago.“Four people fell off Forbes’ annual list of the continent’s richest since last year while one returned to the ranks after a four-year absence. All but four members of the list have smaller fortunes than a year ago.”
“I was also told he is one of the commanders of the Al Barnawi faction of the Boko Haram sect.
“I travelled to the shores of the Lake Chad to plead with Ba-Ana to surrender and embrace peace. It took me about one week to get to where I met him.
“When I arrived at the camp, I told them that I am the father of Ba-Ana and after a series of interrogations, they asked me to wait for him to return from a mission.
“Ba-Ana returned at night, he was surprised to see me, and when he heard my voice; he told his men that I am his father.
“I pleaded with him for about 30 days in a bid to convince him to lay down his arms and embrace peace, regrettably he did not heed my counsel.
“Ba-Ana confessed that he killed many people and believed that the authorities would not forgive his crimes. He also believed that he had committed his life to the cause of God.
“I have not lost hope; I will continue to pray to God to heal his soul and bring him back to me,” he said.
Meanwhile, the military said on Wednesday that it was clearing the remnants of Boko Haram on the major road leading to Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.
A statement signed by the spokesman for the counter-insurgency operation in the North-East, Operation Lafiya Dole, Col. Onyema Nwachukwu, said there was no truth in media reports that the Maiduguri-Damaturu Road had been closed to motorists.
The Maiduguri-Damaturu Road, he said, was perhaps the only safe road leading to the town and had it been closed, the town would have been cut off from the rest of Nigeria by road.
The road in the last one week had become the latest theatre of war between the military and the terrorist group which is threatening to capture Maiduguri.
The insurgents have, however, suffered heavy casualties as they have continued to fall under air and land bombardments of the Nigerian military.