Here are the ten richest Nigerians all based on the current ranking of Forbes Africa list.
1. Aliko Dangote

Age: 58
Net Worth: $16.7 billion
Source of Wealth: Cement, Sugar, Flour
The Dangote Group was established as a small trading firm in 1977.
Today, it is a multi-trillion naira conglomerate with many of its
operations in Benin, Ghana, Nigeria, and Togo. Dangote has expanded to
cover food processing, cement manufacturing, and freight.
The Dangote Group also dominates the sugar market in Nigeria and is a
major supplier to the country’s soft drink companies, breweries, and
confectioners.
The Dangote Group has moved from being a trading company to being the
largest industrial group in Nigeria and includes: Dangote Sugar
Refinery, Dangote Cement, and Dangote Flour.
2. Mike Adenuga

Age: 62
Net Worth: $6.5 billion
Source of Wealth: Telecom, Oil
His company Globacom is Nigeria’s second-largest telecom operator and
also has a presence in Ghana and Benin. He also owns stakes in the
Equitorial Trust Bank and the oil exploration firm Conoil (formerly
Consolidated Oil Company). His telecom company Globacom spread quickly
and started challenging the giant MTN Group.
It launched services in Benin in 2008 and has continued its spread
across Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire, with more licenses currently being
prospected in other West African countries.
3. Folorunsho Alakija

Age: 65
Net Worth: $1.7 billion
Source of Wealth: Oil
She is a business tycoon involved in the fashion, oil and printing
industries. She is the group managing director of The Rose of Sharon
Group which consists of The Rose of Sharon Prints & Promotions
Limited and Digital Reality Prints Limited and the executive
vice-chairman of Famfa Oil Limited.
4. Femi Otedola

Age:53
Net Worth:$1.6 billion
Source of Wealth: Gas stations
Femi Otedola is a Nigerian businessman, entrepreneur, philanthropist,
and chairman of Forte Oil Plc, an importer of fuel products. He is also
the founder of Zenon Petroleum and Gas Ltd, and the owner of a number
of other businesses across shipping, real estate, and finance.
5. Abdulsamad Rabiu
Age: 55
Net Worth: $1 billion
Source of Wealth: Cement, sugar, flour
Abdul Samad Rabiu established BUA International Limited in 1988 for
the sole purpose of commodity trading. The company engaged in the
importation of rice, edible oil, flour and iron and steel.
In 1990, the then Government owned Delta Steel Company contracted BUA
to supply its raw materials needs, for which Bua was paid with finished
products.
This provided the much-needed windfall for the young company. Bua
further ventured into steel, billets and iron ore importation and
supplying multiple rolling mills in the country.
Few years down the line, BUA acquired Nigerian Oil Mills Limited, the
largest edible oil processing company in Nigeria and later set up 2
flour milling plants in Lagos and Kano in 2005.
By 2008, Bua broke an eight-year monopoly in the Nigerian sugar
industry by commissioning the second-largest sugar refinery in
sub-Saharan Africa.
The company went on the acquire a controlling stake in a publicly
listed Cement Company of Northern Nigeria in 2009 and commenced to the
construction of a $500 million cement plant in Edo State to be
commissioned early 2015.
6. Theophilus Danjuma

Age: 77
Net Worth: $75o million
Source of Wealth: Oil
South Atlantic Petroleum (SAPETRO) is a Nigerian oil exploration and
production company that was created in 1995 by General T. Y. Danjuma.
The ministry of Petroleum Resources in Nigeria awarded the Oil
Prospecting License (OPL) 246 to SAPETRO in February 1998.
7. Tony Elumelu

Age: 52
Net Worth: $700 million
Source of Wealth: Investments
In his early career, Elumelu acquired and turned Standard Trust Bank
into a top-five player in Nigeria. In 2005, his corporate reputation as
an African business leader was sealed when he led the largest merger in
the banking sector in Sub-Saharan Africa to acquire United Bank for
Africa (UBA). In five years, he transformed it from a single-country
bank to a pan-African institution with over seven million customers in
nineteen African countries.
Following his retirement from UBA in 2010, Elumelu founded Heirs
Holdings, which invests in the financial services, energy, real estate
and hospitality, agribusiness, and healthcare sectors. In the same year,
he established the Tony Elumelu Foundation, an Africa-based and
African-funded philanthropic organization dedicated to the promotion of
excellence in business leadership and entrepreneurship and to enhancing
the competitiveness of the private sector across Africa.
In 2011, Heirs Holdings acquired a controlling interest in the
Transnational Corporation of Nigeria Plc (Transcorp), a publicly quoted
conglomerate that has business interests in the agribusiness, energy,
and hospitality sectors. Elumelu was subsequently appointed the chairman
of the corporation.
8. Jim Ovia

Age: 62
Net Worth: $550 million
Source of Wealth: Banking
Jim Ovia is the founder of Zenith Bank, one of the largest commercial
banks in Nigeria. He is the chairman and largest individual shareholder
with a stake of slightly more than 9% stake. He also owns prime real
estate across Nigeria, and mobile telecom operator Visafone, which has 3
million subscribers.
9. Mohammed Indimi

Age: 67
Net Worth: $500 million
Source of Wealth: Oil
Mohammed Indimi is the chairman and leading shareholder of Oriental
Energy Resources, a privately held Nigerian oil exploration and
production company he founded in 1990. Oriental currently has three
projects offshore of Nigeria’s Niger Delta region. Six of his children
serve on the company’s board. His net worth dropped from an estimated
$670 million a year ago due to ongoing low oil prices.
10. Orji Uzor Kalu
Age: 56
Net Worth: $330 million
Source of Wealth: Diversified
Orji Uzor Kalu is the founder of Slok Holding, a West African
conglomerate with interests in shipping, banking, oil trading,
manufacturing and the media. He got his start in business at age 19
after being expelled from a Nigerian university for spearheading a
series of student riots. He borrowed $35 from his mother and started
trading commodities like palm oil, rice, and sugar.
He diversified into furniture manufacturing and transportation and
became a millionaire by the time he was 20. He hit the big time in the
early 80s when the Nigerian military government awarded him lucrative
contracts to import and supply arms and ammunition to Nigeria’s military
and defense forces. He was previously a governor of Abia state in
Nigeria’s southeast.