The report that Forbes has listed Nigerian businessmen, Aliko Dangote, Mike Adenuga, Abdulsamad Rabiu and Femi Otedola, as the top richest Nigerians in 2024 dominates the headlines of Nigerian newspapers on Wednesday.
The Punch reports that Forbes has listed Nigerian businessmen, Aliko Dangote, Mike Adenuga, Abdulsamad Rabiu and Femi Otedola, as the top richest Nigerians in 2024.
This comes as the combined wealth of Nigeria’s top three richest businessmen dropped slightly by 11.23 per cent to $25.3bn, according to the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires released on Tuesday.
The three Nigerians are the President/Chief Executive of the Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote; BUA Group Chairman, Abdul Samad Rabiu, and Globacom boss, Mike Adenuga.
The figure was a reduction of $3.2bn from $28.5bn recorded by the business moguls in 2023.
A breakdown shows that the fortune of the founder of Dangote’s group reduced slightly from $14.2bn in 2023 to $13.4bn.
The wealth of the chairman of BUA group also reduced marginally to $5.2bn in 2024 from $8.2bn in 2023 while Adenuga’s fortune increased from $6.1bn to $6.7 billion within one year.
Meanwhile, Nigerian business magnate, Otedola, was listed as a new entrant to the billionaire list with a total net worth of $1.4bn.
On the list, Dangote,ranked at number 144, was described as the richest man in Africa and the richest Black man in the world.
His business empire, Dangote Group, is one of the largest private-sector employers in Nigeria as well as the most valuable conglomerate in West Africa.
The newspaper says that the pump price of Automotive Gas Oil, popularly called diesel, has dropped from about N1,700/litre which it sold for a few weeks ago, to around N1,350/litre in some locations across the country following the sale of the commodity by the Dangote Petroleum Refinery.
It was gathered on Tuesday that the $20bn worth refinery started pumping out diesel to the domestic market last Wednesday.
It sold a minimum of one million litres to each registered oil marketer that got the product from the plant since it commenced diesel sale.
Officials of the multi-billion dollar plant and oil dealers confirmed that the product was dispensed to marketers at between N1,225/litre and N1,300/litre depending on the volume of purchase.
This came as it was also gathered that the refinery would start releasing Premium Motor Spirit to the domestic market in May this year.
“They started pumping out diesel to marketers since last week. They also promised to sell aviation fuel soon. Some of my members confirmed this to me after making the purchase,” the National President, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Abubakar Maigandi, told one of our correspondents.
He added, “So some of our marketers have started getting the product, but as an association we have not got the product yet, because we want to get the actual rate that it will be sold to us when we buy in bulk. However, they have started selling diesel because some of our marketers have started buying.
“They are selling at N1,225/litre and the minimum volume they are giving is one million litres per marketer. Also, they assured us that they will release more products, but for now this (diesel) is what they are starting with. So we are expecting them to release PMS anytime from now.”
Maigandi said the move by Dangote would definitely lead to a crash in diesel price, as the commodity rose to a high of about N1,700/litre recently.
The Vanguard newspaper reports that bandits, terrorists and herdsmen yesterday, wreaked havoc in some states of the country, kidnapping children and people at will.
In March 2024 alone, no fewer than 1087 Nigerians, including children, had been kidnapped in the country, according to media reports. The figure may be higher as many incidents are not reported or under-reported.
In the early hours of Monday, no fewer than 30 children were kidnapped by suspected bandits at Kasai village in Batsari Local Government Area of Katsina State.
This was as bandits disrupted prayers in a mosque and kidnapped worshippers in Zamfara State. In another part of the state, bandits killed a man, abducted his wife and a neighbour.
Like they did on the campus of University of Calabar, UNICAL, where they kidnapped three students two days ago, gunmen abducted two university students in Taraba State, yesterday.
Also, herdsmen kidnapped two persons and a baby in Delta State and demanded N15 million ransom.
How 30 children were abducted in Katsina, rescued.
Batsari is one of several security frontline LGAs in Katsina State where activities of bandits, and other criminal elements have been on the increase almost on a daily basis.
The newspaper says that the price of Nigeria’s Bonny Light, yesterday, rose by 2.2 per cent to $88.97 per barrel in the global oil market following increased tension in the Middle East resulting from Israel’s airstrike on Iran’s embassy in Damascus, Syria.
The increased tension which fuelled speculation over possible shortage and higher prices, also impacted other crudes, including Brent.
The current price of $88.97 per barrel amounts to excess revenue of $11 per barrel for Nigeria recorded excess as the nation’s 2024 budget was based on $77.96 per barrel and 1.78 million barrels per day.
However, despite increased battle against oil theft, the nation has so far failed to meet budgetary targets of 1.78 million per day and with several refineries scheduled to come on-stream this year, concerns about the feedstock supply to the refineries have increased in the past month.
Speaking at a recent meeting to review Domestic Crude Oil Supply Obligation as contained under Section 109 (2) of the Petroleum Industry Act, PIA 2021, the Chief Executive, Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, Engr. Gbenga Komolafe insisted that priority must be given to crude supply to local refineries. Komolafe pointed out that the overall objective of the government was to ensure that Nigeria becomes a net exporter of refined petroleum products.
GIK/APA