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Three weeks after debuting on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Nigeria’s second richest man Abdul Samad Rabiu has fallen out.
The Bloomberg Billionaires Index, launched in March 2012, is a daily ranking of the world’s 500 richest people.
Late in May, Rabiu, the chairman of Nigerian industrial conglomerate BUA Group, entered the ranking, landing on the 282nd position on the index with a fortune Bloomberg initially pegged at $7.65 billion. Rabiu’s net worth on the ranking peaked at $8.24 billion.
However, the Central Bank of Nigeria’s resolution to adopt a free float exchange rate mechanism to meet Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s target of achieving a single forex system in the country sent the value of the Naira plunging to an all-time low of 750 nairas to the dollar of recent, down from 477 nairas to the dollar.
Aliko Dangote and Rabiu, the only two Nigerian billionaires listed among the 500 richest men in the world, lost more than $6 billion.
On Friday, abiu was not on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, meaning that he did not have a net worth of at least $5.16 billion, the current cut-off to join Bloomberg’s top 500 club.
The 500th richest man on the index is U.S. businessman Dick Schulze, the founder of Best Buy, a North American electronics retailer. His net worth is $ 5.16 billion.
Abdul Samad Rabiu, one of Africa’s most generous philanthropists, launched the Abdul Samad Rabiu Africa Initiative in March 2021. The initiative provides $100 million annually to fund programs promoting Africa’s social development and renewal.
