Four Nigerian billionaires lost a combined $2.3 billion in estimated wealth on Thursday, August 20, 2026, as investors took profits after a strong stock market rally, pushing Nigeria’s benchmark index to a six-week low.

A report on this by BusinessDay quoted data from Forbes’s real-time billionaire tracker as showing that Aliko Dangote, Mike Adenuga and Femi Otedola lost $1.1 billion, $1.2 billion, $25.9million and $20.2 million, respectively. Rabiu, Africa’s third-richest man with a fortune of $11.5 billion, recorded the largest decline among the four.

“Forbes updates billionaire net worth estimates every five minutes during trading hours, reflecting changes in the value of publicly listed holdings, while privately held assets are reviewed periodically.

“The one-day decline in wealth came as the Nigerian Exchange Limited’s market capitalization fell to N155.0 trillion on Thursday, its lowest level since July 7, from N155.4 trillion at Wednesday’s close, according to NGX All-Share Index also fell to 240,037.8 points, its lowest level since July7 from 240, 750.5 points.

“The pullback follows a rally that briefly made the exchange the world’s best-performing stock market in dollar terms and lifted the fortunes of some of Nigeria’s wealthiest investors,” BusinessDay reported.

It quoted Abiodun Keripe, the managing director of Afrinvest Consulting Limited, as saying: “The slowdown is a combination of normal third-quarter seasonality, profit-marking, limited near-term catalyst and investor positioning ahead of major events. Q3 is also typically a quiet period for the equities market, with fewer corporate actions and dividend related catalysts than earlier in the year.”

On billionaires’ listed holdings, the newspaper said:

“Femi Otedola, with an estimated net worth of $1.8 billion, emerged as Africa’s fasted-rising billionaire this year, driven largely by his increasing stake in First HoldCo.

“The share price of the parent company of Nigeria’s oldest bank remained unchanged at N132 on Thursday. First HoldCo, which has become the country’s most valuable banking group with a market capitalization of N6 trillion, traded as high as N142 on August 7.

“Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man with a fortune of $30.2 billion, also saw limited movement in his publicly listed holdings. Dangote Cement, with a market capitalization of N17.5 trillion, remained unchanged at N1,034, while Dangote Sugar, which gained 1.23 percent to N69.90 yesterday, also remained unchanged today, giving the company a market value of N848.5 billion.

“Abdul Samad Rabiu’s BUA Foods, which became Nigeria’s most value listed company in the second half of 2025 before losing that position earlier this year, remained unchanged at N760.60, giving the company market capitalization of N13.69 trillion. BUA Cement also remained unchanged at N316, valuing the company at N10.70 trillion.

“Despite limited movement in most of their listed holdings on Wednesday, the billionaires’ estimated wealth declined as Forbes’ real-time calculations reflected changes in the value of their publicly traded assets.”

*PLS USE NGX PHOTO

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