Alhaji Aliko Dangote also known as richest blackman in the world has lost his position as number one billionaire in Africa, in same way, Nigerian billionaire Rabiu Abdulsamad who owns BUA and other Nigerian Mike Adenuga who owns GLO communications lost their places in the list of the richest people released by the financial magazine.

Johann Ruppert Vs Aliko Dangote 

 In the list, Forbes Daily's billionaires forum which tracks the daily changes in the world's richest people, revealed that Aliko Dangote has dropped to second place as his wealth declines  from 13 billion 500 million dollars in 2023 to 9 billion 500 million dollars at the beginning of 2024.

 A study by Forbes magazine showed a sharp decline in wealth among the super-rich people.

 Also, the wealth of the Nigerian rich man, Mike Adenuga, took him to the tenth place in the list of the richest people in Africa, while Patrice Motsepe, who is in the tenth place in 2023, lost his tenth place in the year 2024.

 A surprising change in Forbes list of the richest people in Africa is that no woman made it to the list of the ten richest people at the beginning of this year.

 Experts in economy are linking the decline in wealth of these rich people to the challenges faced by the economy across the continent. Others have linked the decline in wealth of Dangote to the fall in value of Naira and other issues related to economic pressure his country is facing.

 Here is the list of the richest people in Africa and their net worth from Forbes magazine:

 1. Johann Rupert - $10.3 billion

 2. Aliko Dangote - 9.5 billion dollars

 3. Nicky Oppenheimer - $8.3 billion

 4. Nassef Sawiris - $7.4 billion

 5. Abdulsamad Rabiu - 5.9 billion dollars

 6. Nathan Kirsh - $5.8 billion

 7. Issad Rebrab - $4.6 billion

8. Mohamed Mansour - $3.6 billion

 9. Naguib Sawiris - 3.3 billion dollars

 10. Mike Adenuga - 3.1 billion dollars


The EFCC has raided Dangote's headquarters in Lagos

The Economic and Financial Crime Commission of Nigeria EFCC, which fight against corruption and sabotage of the Nigerian economy, has raided Dangote's company headquarters in Lagos on Thursday 4th January.

xperts in economy deemed that, the raid by  EFCC officials to headquarters of Dangote company in Lagos, on Thursday, may affect the share price of the company here locally, but it will not affect the price of Dangote's products in international markets.

The attacks by the EFCC officials is related to the investigation by the agency against the former governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Godwin Emefiele, as confirmed by their reports.

The decision has made Nigerians to speak out about the future value of Dangote companies and their production.

Dr. Ghazali Ado Jibrin, an economist and corporate affairs expert in Nigeria said, "it will not affect the production and price of Dangote products, but it can affect the price of shares of Dangote companies in stock market".

This matter is looming at a time when Forbes magazine reported that Alhaji Aliko Dangote, the owner of Dangote group of companies, which has branches in more than 10 African countries, has lost his status as the richest man in the continent of Africa.

However, Dr. Kabiru Sa'idu Sufi, a businessman and Economist, said that "the situation did not come as a surprise", and he related this to "considering the economic problem that Nigeria is facing" and fall in the value of Naira”.

Apart from the Dangote Company, there are more than 50 companies that EFCC said it is investigating how they dealt with dollar and other foreign funds between them and the Central Bank CBN in the last 10 years.

Could that worsen the future of Nigerian economy, which is suffering from an extreme downward trend? Dr. Ghazali said, "It will not cause, it can even bring benefits to Nigerian economy, because it will portray that Nigerian government is serious about preventing corruption and any company that is found in corruption will be seriously dealt with.

However, according to Dr. Ghazali, there is a need for EFCC to expand its investigation to government agencies that are directly related to the country's economy, such as the Nigerian Customs Services and the National Oil Company NNPC and others.

While experts continue to debate on this issue, attention has turned to EFCC, to see the results of its investigation on companies and the impact it will have on the future of the Nigerian economy.

Why EFCC attacked Dangote's company headquarters

Information continues to emerge on the raids by the officials of the Nigerian anti-corruption agency EFCC, who raided the offices of a group of companies in Dangote at noon on last Thursday.

 They spent almost two hours looking at the company's financial documents, as part of an investigation into the possible misappropriation of foreign currency, especially US dollars, which they received at a discount rate from Central Bank of Nigeria.

 They started calling the company's offices around 11 am.

 The Dangote group of companies owned by African businessman, Aliko Dangote has cement, fertilizer, sugar and other factories. And he is trying to start refining 650,000 barrels of oil in the new oil refinery he built at a cost of 20 billion dollars.

 Under the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, the bank developed various foreign exchange systems and sold dollars at a discount rate to some companies, including Dangote to help them buy their processing equipment.

 In June, Nigerian authorities arrested Godwin Emefiele, former CBN governor after he was suspended from his post, charging him with various crimes including corruption.

 A source in the Dangote company confirmed the raid by the EFCC officers in red uniforms to their office in Lagos.

Reuters news report shows that, EFCC claim that the investigation carried out by its officers at the offices of Dangote, is a project that will be expanded to other companies.

 "We went to the head office of the Dangote Group of Companies today (Thursday) to review their documents on the ongoing investigation into the possible violation of the laws governing foreign exchange during the reign of Godwin Emefiele," Reuters quoted a source.

 "Here we are talking about different types of foreign exchange and so on. It is an ongoing investigation and now the work has come to the Dangote company," according to the source.

 We were not raided - BUA

 On the other hand, the BUA company of AbdusSamad Rabi'u denied that the EFCC officers raided his offices on Thursday.

 In a statement he published on his social media pages, BUA said that no EFCC official raided them contrary to what some internet sources have been spreading.

 It has been suspected for a long time that the currency exchange system used by Nigeria, allows the welfare of some few individuals in the country at the expense of naira devaluation.
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