Three Nigerians are among the record 2,208 billionaires that made Forbes’ 32nd annual ranking of the world’s billionaires, as featured in the March 31, 2018 issue of Forbes magazine. They are Aliko Dangote who retained his title as the rich man in Africa, followed by Mike Adenuga and Folorunsho Alakija. According to Forbes, Dangote is the 100th richest man on planet earth and first in Africa with a net worth $14.1 billion. Adenuga on the other hand is said to be worth $5.3 billion and occupies 365th position while Alakija occupies the 1651 position globally.
Luisa Kroll and Kerry A. Dolan, Assistant Managing Editors of Wealth, at Forbes Media said “The superrich continue to get richer, widening the gap between them and everyone else.” Centi-billionaire Jeff Bezos seizes the top spot for the first time. Bezos has a fortune of $112 billion, up $39.2 billion from 2017, the biggest one-year gain ever. Bill Gates, who has been the richest person in the world for 18 of the past 24 years, drops to No. 2 on the Forbes billionaires list. Gates has a fortune of $90 billion, up from $86 billion last year. This is the biggest gap in dollars between the top 2 spots since 2001.
Warren Buffett, worth $84 billion, falls to the No. 3 spot. His net worth increased from $75.6 billion in 2017. Bernard Arnault, with a fortune of $72 billion, ascends 7 spots in the ranks to No. 4. Thanks to his $30.5 billion gain in the past year, Arnault is the richest person in Europe for the first time since 2012. Rounding out the top five is Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, worth $71 billion.
Spanish clothing retailer Amancio Ortega (best known for the Zara fashion chain) in at No. 6, drops out of the top 5 for the first time since 2011. Ortega’s net worth is $70 billion, a $1.3 billion decrease from 2017. Forbes said that 2,208 billionaires, up from 2,043 in 2017 made the list, with an average net worth of $4.1 billion, a record high. The total combined net worth of this year’s billionaires was $9.1 trillion, up from $7.7 trillion last year.It said that 1,490 members are self-made billionaires, up from 1,371 in 2017. The total number of women on the list is 256, up from 227 in 2017. This includes 13 women who share their fortunes with their husband, brother, or son.
It also said that a record 72 of those women are self-made billionaires, an all-time high and significant increase from 56 women in 2017. The richest self-made woman is Hong Kong’s Zhou Qunfei, whose Lens Technology company makes screens for smartphones. The company went public in 2015. The U.S. boasts the most women billionaires on the 2018 list, with 82, followed by Germany with 33 and China with 30. These numbers include 5 women in the U.S. who have built companies with their husbands with whom they are listed, and 1 woman in Germany who shares an inherited fortune with her brother.
