Net worth of second-richest person in Nigeria surpasses $8.1 billion - Report

After recently exceeding the $7-billion mark, the net worth of Nigerian billionaire industrialist Abdul Samad Rabiu shows no signs of slowing down, owing to the surge in the shares of his publicly traded businesses.

Rabiu, who derives his fortune from publicly traded companies on the Nigerian Exchange, is Nigeria’s second-richest man and one of the African continent’s wealthiest businessmen.

According to Forbes, Rabiu’s net worth has surpassed $8.1 billion as a result of a surge in the shares of his publicly traded cement company, BUA Cement Plc, and his newly consolidated food conglomerate, BUA Foods Plc.

His net worth has been on the rise since Jan. 5 when shares of his consolidated food conglomerate, BUA Foods Plc were listed on the Nigerian Exchange on Jan. 5, a move that saw his wealth figures leap from $4.9 billion to $7 billion barely 48 hours after the listing.

Recently, his net worth rose by $800 million from $7.3 billion on Dec. 9 to $8.1 billion at the time of drafting this report, driven majorly by the stock market performance of his cement business.

According to data retrieved from the Nigerian Exchange, BUA Cement shares have increased from N77 ($0.1725) to N97.75 ($0.219) at the time of writing this report. This double-digit increase can be attributed to the cement company’s strong financial performance this year, as investors and shareholders continue to accumulate stakes in the company.

While other cement companies struggled to match their 2022 results, BUA Cement reported a 12.3-percent increase in profit during the first nine months of its 2022 fiscal year, from N65.9 billion ($145 million) in the same period in 2021 to N74 billion ($168.4 million), as cement sales increased by double digits.

During the period under review, the leading cement manufacturer opened a 3-million-metric-tonne cement factory in Sokoto, a state in northwestern Nigeria, as part of its expansion plans to meet the country’s growing cement demand as well as regional exports to other countries.