After 12 years at No.1 Aliko Dangote is now 2nd Richest man in Africa

For the first time in a dozen years, Aliko Dangote has fallen from his perch as Africa’s richest person. The continent’s new number one, according to Forbes’ calculations, is Johann Rupert of South Africa, who built a fortune in luxury goods and more. Rupert overtook Dangote on Thursday, June 15 and has an estimated net worth of $11.7 billion, according to Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires ranking at 10 a.m. ET on June 21. This marks the first time that Rupert ranks as the richest person in Africa; he's been on Forbes' list of billionaires since at least 1997. Dangote, 66, stands in second place behind Rupert, 73, among African billionaires with a fortune estimated at $10.4 billion. That’s a $3.7 billion drop from the $14.1 billion net worth Dangote had on Wednesday, June 14.

The decline of Dangote’s fortune comes in the wake of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s decision to float its currency, the naira, on June 14, abandoning the fixed exchange rate with the U.S. dollar. The naira, which had been trading around 465 per U.S. dollar, plummeted about 40% against the U.S. dollar on Friday, June 16 and fell to a low of N690 to the U.S. dollar on Tuesday, June 20.

The majority of Dangote’s fortune lies in his 85% ownership of listed firm Dangote Cement, the continent’s largest cement producer, shares of which have risen about 1% since the central bank’s decision to float the currency. The plunging naira far outweighed the slight uptick in Dangote Cement’s shares in shifting Dangote’s fortune.

The continent’s new No. 1, Rupert is chairman of Compagnie Financière Richemont, a Switzerland-listed luxury goods powerhouse that boasts brands such as Cartier, Montblanc and Van Cleef & Arpels. Richemont was founded by Rupert in 1988 when he spun off the international assets from The Rembrandt Group, his father’s conglomerate formed in the 1940s. Rupert also serves as chairman of Remgro, a South African investment holding company with a diversified portfolio in banking, healthcare and media companies. He also owns part of the Saracens English rugby team and says his biggest regret was not buying half of Gucci when he had the opportunity to do so–decades ago– for just $175 million.

Rupert’s net worth has increased by nearly $3 billion since early 2022 and more than doubled since early 2020, when Forbes estimated it at $4.6 billion.

The Nigerian Central Bank’s decision to float the naira is part of newly-elected President Bola Tinubu’s larger efforts to reportedly encourage investment into Nigeria and stop black market operators profiting from the margin between official and unofficial financial markets. Tinubu took office in May and since then has led an overhaul of the Nigerian economy that also includes abolishing the country's fuel subsidies, an incentive that has been in place since the 1970s.

According to Nimi Wariboko, a former investment banker in Nigeria and former strategic consultant at Nigeria’s Central Bank, Dangote may be able to play Tinubu’s scrapping of state fuel subsidies to his advantage with his company’s launch of a new oil refinery in Lagos last month. The plant was built to combat the country’s fuel shortages–Nigeria hasn’t been able to refine the oil extracted domestically–and was built at a reported cost of $19 billion. But Wariboko says it might also provide Dangote with an opportunity to reclaim his position as Africa's wealthiest individual.

“So he’s going to have a monopoly on [refining oil in Nigeria] and also be able to sell at a higher market price,” said Wariboko. “So this fall seems temporary.”

Representatives for Rupert and Dangote did not reply to a request for comment.

By Jemima Denham, Forbes

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Peter Obi supports the Japa movement

Labour Party’s Presidential candidate in the February 25 presidential poll, Mr Peter Obi has endorsed Nigerians fleeing the country for greener pastures abroad, “JAPA”, saying it will benefit Nigeria’s fortunes in the future.

The former Anambra governor who gained massive support from Nigerians, especially on Social media in the just concluded electioneering campaign for being “a prudent and incorrupt politician”, stated that today’s brain drain will be Nigeria’s brain gain tomorrow.

Ex-governor Obi, in a series of tweets, Thursday, supported Bill Gate’s opinion on the migration wave hitting Nigeria, noting in the tweet that “Nigerians leaving the country will be critical in the building of the New Nigeria”.

“I read and agree with Bill Gates’s recent comment on the ‘japa syndrome, where, according to reports, he stated that the recent surge of Nigerian professionals leaving the country for greener pastures is good and healthy for our country.”

Obi noted that “I have always preached and maintained this same position that ‘Our brain drain today will be our brain gain tomorrow’.”

“Nigerians leaving the country may look like a loss today, but when we start doing the right things and taking the governance of our nation more seriously, the knowledge and resources from them will be critical in the building of the New Nigeria, as it happened in China, India, Ireland and other developing countries,” Peter Obi noted.

Peter Obi’s comments are coming on the heels of a clarification by the British Envoy to Nigeria on the UK visa policy believed to be targeted at Nigerian students who depart the country in droves with their families.

By Idowu Bankole, Vanguard

Barcelona basketball team condemn racist abuse of Nigerian player

The Barcelona basketball team has condemned the racist abuse suffered by Nigerian player James Nnaji during their Spanish championship final victory over bitter rivals Real Madrid.

The incident on Tuesday comes as Spanish sport wrestles with the global outcry sparked by racism aimed at Real Madrid’s Brazilian football star Vinicius Jr. The 22-year-old Brazilian forward called out racist abuse in the Spanish football league in May, which he had been subjected to since moving to Spain five years ago.

On Wednesday, it was the turn of Spanish basketball.

“Barcelona strongly condemns the racist insults suffered by first-team basketball player James Nnaji before game three of the final,” the team said in a statement on Wednesday.

“The club expects a firm response from the ACB [Spanish basketball league] against any racial or verbal insults.”

Images of the arrival of the Barcelona team bus at the WiZink centre in Madrid, where Tuesday’s match took place, showed several Madrid fans hurling insults at the Barcelona players.

According to local media, Nnaji was the target of racist insults.

“I want to talk about what happened here with James Nnaji. I think it’s regrettable. I hear a lot about Vinicius, and now it’s us who have to talk about what’s going on,” Barcelona basketball coach Sarunas Jasikevicius said later.

“It has to stop now. It doesn’t fit, I guess, with the values of Real Madrid and its supporters, and we have to be very angry about that,” he said.

Nigeria’s online media outlet Pulse Sports said the 18-year-old Nnaji played for just eight minutes and 35 seconds in the final but had a “pivotal role” in his team’s win.

Barcelona beat Real Madrid in 93-82 on Tuesday after winning the first two games of the final for the club’s 20th Spanish league title. 

Al Jazeera

Esports in Nigeria

In a room decked out in futuristic decor in an upscale district of Nigeria's economic capital Lagos, several thousand visitors gathered for a giant video game tournament on Saturday.

Whipped up by an emcee, crowds of young spectators cheered all day in front of the competitors whose games were interspersed with concerts of local Afrobeats stars, Victony and Crayon.

Competitors battled it out in popular eSports games like "Call of Duty: Mobile", "Street Fighter" and "FIFA".

The bling of the "Nigerian-style" show lived up to the ambitions of Africa's leading economy as it looks to establish itself as an eSports –- electronic sports –- leader despite the economic and logistics problems the country faces.

South Africa is now crushing the African eSports scene, thanks to numerous investments, followed by Egypt and Morocco, then to a lesser extent by Senegal, Ivory Coast and Kenya.

But Nigeria has something to make its neighbours swoon because its strengths -- and its challenges -- are immense.

Immense especially in size: it is the most populous country in Africa with more than 215 million inhabitants, renowned for being competitive in business, sports and music. And three-quarters of the population is under 25.

In Lagos, in the midst of the din of the tournament he was supervising, Kunmi Adenipebi explained it was almost impossible to know exactly how many players there are in Nigeria.

"Some say there are 60 million players in Nigeria. We did a survey and we know one thing for sure: there are at least 3 million players," said Adenipebi, chief of operations at Gamr, which organised the event.
Feet of clay

The potential pool of Nigerian players is enormous: broadband internet penetration has reached 48 percent, almost all via smartphone, and it continues to grow.

This is only the beginning, however, as Nigeria will be the second most populous country in the world at the end of the century with nearly 790 million inhabitants, just behind India, according to Lancet projections.

But, between widespread poverty, power cuts and the poor quality network, Nigeria remains a colossus with feet of clay.

It has few professional players even if there are more and more since the global Covid pandemic, Adenipebi said.

"Esport is a beautiful opportunity for our youth and to pull people out of poverty. We want it to become a means of living," said Chike Okonkwo, co-founder of Gamic, which promotes eSport.

A few metres from the main hall, Akintoye Arogunmati, who goes by the name "The_Arogs", was participating in the tournament.

Eyes glued to the screen, the 25-year-old, one of Nigeria's best professional players on "FIFA", says he earns an average of 300,000 naira (420 euros) per month. This is 10 times the minimum wage of 30,000 naira.

Last November, he participated in the Paris Games Week, which he called "a dream".

But "there are so many challenges to overcome" before he can get ahead, he said, laughing, his controller in his hands.

"Being a gamer in Nigeria comes with so many challenges. For an average Nigerian, equipment and generators are very expensive. There is no constant electricity in Nigeria. And the network," he said.
Nightmare

To play online, a gamer must obviously have a good internet connection but also a low "ping", a nightmare for many Africans.

Ping is the reaction time between when a player presses a key and when that action actually takes place in-game. It is the round-trip time between the player and the server they are on.

African players are at a disadvantage in online competition because the servers for almost all games are hosted in Europe, North America or Asia. That means it takes longer for African players' actions to register in the system.

"It is so frustrating, you know that the guy is not as good as you but because of the ping, you can't do anything. You can't compete," said Arogunmati.

In the room drenched in purple and blue neon lights, players compete on state-of-the-art giant screens. In the VIP area, the whisky flows freely.

The glitzy scene contrasts with the reality facing pro players, because even when you are a champion, life has "nothing fun" and the rewards are too low, said pro player "K.I.D".

"For a tournament like this one, they can pay you in three months or more," said Kevin Durst, a pro competitor in "Street Fighter".

"The reality is that without my sponsors I wouldn't have anything to eat."

AFP

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Suspended central bank chief of Nigeria facing criminal charges

Nigeria's suspended central bank governor is facing criminal charges, including misappropriation of funds, papers filed by government lawyers in court on Tuesday showed.

Godwin Emefiele was suspended by President Bola Tinubu earlier this month and detained by state security agents, who had not disclosed the charges he faced.

His lawyer asked the Abuja High Court to declare that the detention of Emefiele, who was not in court, breached his fundamental rights and that he should be released.

Emefiele has not been formally charged.

Government lawyers said they secured an order from the lower magistrate court to hold Emefiele longer as investigations continue.

Court documents deposed by the Attorney General's office and Department of State Security showed that Emefiele faced criminal breach of trust and criminal misappropriation of funds charges, among others, which carry long jail time if convicted.

The government lawyer opposed Emefiele's application challenging his detention, arguing that only a federal court was competent enough to hear the case.

Judge Hamza Muazu of the Abuja High Court said he will rule on July 13 on whether the court has jurisdiction over the matter.

By Camillus Eboh, Reuters