Otedola’s fortune up $500m in one year while Dangote, others see decline

By Mary Adenike

Within a year, the fortune of Femi Otedola, chairman of Geregu Power Plc and FBN Holdings Plc, grew by $500 million, while three other prominent billionaires saw their wealth decline, MarketsReporters’ analysis of Forbes World’s Billionaires List shows.

Otedola’s net worth jumped by 45.5 percent to $1.6billion as of January 24, 2025, from $1.1 billion on January 22 last year, while that of Aliko Dangote, Abdulsamad Rabiu, and Mike Adenuga combined dropped by 15.7 percent to $22.5 billion.

Forbes’s wealth-tracking platform provides ongoing updates on the net worth and ranking of each individual confirmed to be a billionaire. The value of individuals’ public holdings is updated every five minutes when respective stock markets are open.

In January 2024, Otedola returned to the American business magazine’s billionaires list with a net worth of $1.4 billion, joining Dangote, Rabiu, and Adenuga.

“All of that gain can be attributed to the return of Otedola, who last appeared on the Forbes Africa list in 2017 when he held a controlling stake in fuel distributor Forte Oil,” Forbes said.

Ayorinde Akinloye, a Lagos-based investor relations analyst, said the last time Forbes valued Otedola’s wealth, they didn’t factor in the full value of Geregu Power.

“Since Geregu Power got listed two years ago, its share price has overvalued which most likely contributed to the increase in his net worth. The extra value he has gotten from the company, his investment in Dangote Cement simulated ₦613.25 ▼0.41%, and further investment in FBN Holdings, the parent of First Bank of Nigeria, has probably improved his net worth,” he added.

Geregu Power became the first power generation company to be listed on the Nigerian Exchange Limited on October 5, 2022. Since then, its share price has risen by more than 11-fold to N1,150 as of Friday. Otedola bought a significant stake in Dangote Cement last January and was appointed chairman of the Board of Directors at FBN Holdings.

Analysts say the devaluation of the Nigerian naira significantly impacted the wealth of billionaires in the country. The naira has lost more than 70 percent of its value against the dollar following two sharp devaluations since July 2023.

Most of the country’s billionaires’ businesses that center around manufacturing and telecommunications have significant foreign currency-denominated expenses, which currency weakness has pushed up. This has impacted the overall valuation of their companies and, consequently, the billionaires’ wealth.

“The businesses of the top tier performers have been affected by the macroeconomic conditions in Nigeria. Some sectors like manufacturing and telecommunications have suffered from FX losses. Few sectors like banking have seen FX gains,” Temitope Omosuyi, investment strategy manager at Afrinvest Limited, said.

MarketsReporters earlier reported that South Africa overtook Africa’s most populous nation in dollar billionaires’ wealth.  The latest Billionaires Ambitious report by UBS, a multinational investment bank and financial services company, shows the combined wealth of Nigerian billionaires fell to $26.7 billion from $28.5 billion in 2023 while South Africans increased their fortunes to $29.4 billion from $26.7 billion,

The number of billions in Nigeria and South Africa rose by one each to four and six respectively. The number of billionaires in Egypt was unchanged at four, but their fortunes increased 11.9 percent to $15.1 billion.