Mike Adenuga likely africa's richest man

Mike Adenuga, a Nigerian oil and telecoms tycoon, might be Africa’s new richest man.
In March this year, Forbes published its annual rankings of the world’s richest people. Mike Adenuga, who debuted on the list, was ranked as the second richest Nigerian, with a net worth of $2 billion, while Nigerian Aliko Dangote was valued at $13.8 billion.
But shortly after the list was published, controversy erupted in Nigerian media circles. Several Nigerian analysts and Adenuga’s staff refuted our valuation. I was bombarded with emails and messages requesting to know the criteria we used in valuing individuals’ wealth, and our rationale for valuing Adenuga so low.
In our annual Forbes rankings of the world’s richest, we prefer to be conservative in our estimates. We would rather be too low than too high. When working on the 2011 list of the world’s richest, a Forbes reporter tried to reach Dr. Adenuga’s representatives to verify his assets, but Adenuga, a chronically reclusive tycoon, did not respond. As a result, our valuation of the man was based solely on his stake in his telecom company Globacom Holding, which at the time was worth $2 billion.
However, fresh findings from a variety of sources including staff from some of his offices, the Nigerian Corporate Affairs Commission and analysis from professionals in the energy and telecom sectors indicate that the reclusive telecoms and energy tycoon is easily worth more than $2 billion, and depending upon who you talk to, could be richer than Aliko Dangote, last worth $13.8 billion.
Apart from his 74% stake in Conoil PLC, a Nigerian-listed oil marketing firm he founded (the stake is held through ConPetro Limited, a holding company he fully owns) and his holding in Equitorial Trust Bank, Adenuga owns 100% equity in all his other businesses. Of those, the major assets include Conoil Producing, Nigeria’s largest indigenous oil exploration and production company, which operates six producing oil blocks and holds a 25% stake in Joint Development Zone Block 4, an oil prospecting license which has proven reserves of close to 1 billion barrels of oil and close to a trillion cubic feet of gas.