A billionaire businessman, Femi Otedola, recently took to social media to express his excitement on his return to the Forbes African Billionaires list after a seven-year hiatus. Sharing a picture of the announcement on his Instagram page, he wrote, “Interesting”, and added smiley and dollar emojis.”
The 61-year-old entrepreneur currently sits at number 20 on the list with a net worth of $1.1bn.
According to Forbes, the wealth of the 2024 list of 20 billionaires rose to $82.4bn from last year’s $81.5bn, partly as a result of Otedola’s return. Before then, the last time the business mogul appeared on the Forbes Africa list was in 2017. This year, he took the 20th spot on the list.
Otedola, who is the executive chairman of Geregu Power Plc, and a former CEO of Forte Oil, has business interests that span the energy, power generation, real estate, and shipping sectors.
Despite facing stiff competition from multinational oil firms, Otedola’s company has managed to maintain its position as a major player in Nigeria’s energy sector.
Other Nigerian billionaires on the list are Aliko Dangote, who occupies the number one spot and retains his title as Africa’s richest billionaire with a net worth of $13.1bn; while Mike Adenuga, who owns Globacom and other companies, takes the fifth spot with a net worth of $6.9bn.
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