Popular American magazine Forbes has issued its 36th annual ranking of the world’s richest people.
Compared to last year, 87 people failed to make it to the list. War has played a big part this time; as well as the COVID-19 pandemic; in addition to slow markets generally.
According to Forbes, there are 2,668 billionaires included in the list with 236 new comers; while 1,000 billionaires are richer now than they were a year ago.
America still leads the world, with 735 billionaires worth a collective $4.7 trillion (almost Rs867 trillion). This includes Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Motors, who topped the World’s Billionaires list for the first time; while China (including Macau and Hong Kong) remained number two, with 607 billionaires worth a collective $2.3 trillion (almost Rs424 trillion).
Surprisingly, Russia and China witnessed a major drop in the number of billionaires. In Russia, there are 34 fewer billionaires than last year following Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, while in China, a government crackdown on tech companies has led to 87 fewer billionaires on the list.
According to the Forbes magazine, Indian businessman Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries is the 10th richest person in the world, followed by Infrastructure tycoon Gautam Adani and his family, who claimed the 11th spot on Forbes’ annual world’s billionaires list.
Aliko Dangote who remains Africa’s richest man in Africa is the first African on the list at No. 130, ranking the Dangote Group Chairman so for the 11th successive time.
His total earnings of $14 billion place him so. Globacom’s boss, Mike Adenuga, is number 324 and the second African on the list, with his $7.3 billion fortune. BUA Group Chairman, Abdulsamad Rabiu, was listed at number 350 with his $6.9 billion fortune.
“We used stock prices and exchange rates from March 11, 2022 to calculate net worths,” said the magazine.
