BUA Group chairman, Abdulsamad Rabiu, is among 13 black persons from around the world who made it to the 2019 List of World Billionaires released by the financial magazine, Forbes.
Four Nigerians were listed among the 2,153 world’s richest, which recorded an increase in the number of blacks from 11, last year, to 13.
Aliko Dangote leads the pack with an estimated fortune of $10.9 billion, followed by Mike Adenuga whose worth is put at $9.1 billion.
Mr Rabiu’s worth of $1.6 makes him the third richest Nigerian, after Messrs Dangote and Adenuga.
Oil mogul, Folorunsho Alakija trails behind Mr Rabiu with a net worth of $1.1 billion.
Mr Rabiu’s key sources of wealth, according to Forbes, is from cement and sugar industries.
Other investment sectors for the BUA conglomerate include real estate, steel, port concessions, manufacturing, oil gas and shipping.
“BUA Group’s annual revenues are estimated at over $2 billion,” according to the magazine.
“Abdulsamad got his start in business working for his father, Isyaku Rabiu, a successful businessman from Nigeria’s Northern region. He struck out on his own in 1988, importing rice, sugar, edible oils as well as steel and iron rods.”
Ms Alakija, who is Nigeria’s first female billionaire, is the founder of Famfa Oil, a company with substantial interest in OML 127, a lucrative oil block on the Agbami deep-water oilfield.
“Alakija started off as a secretary in a Nigerian merchant bank in the 1970s, then quit her job to study fashion design in England. Upon her return, she founded a Nigerian fashion label that catered to upscale clientele, including Maryam Babangida, wife to Nigeria’s former military president Ibrahim Babangida,” Forbes wrote in an article announcing the list.
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