The overall global billionaires’ net worth declined by $500 billion from $12.7 trillion in March 2022 to $12.2 trillion in 2023, the Forbes 2023 Billionaires List noted.
The coverage of the 2023 assessment noted a decrease in the number of billionaires by 1 per cent from 2,668 billionaires in the previous year to 2,640.
This is at a time when half of the global population is considered poor, living on less than US$6.85 per person per day, according to 2019 estimates of the World Bank.
As of 2019, 3.62 billion people, representing 46.7 per cent of the 7.74 billion people in the world lived below the $6.85 per person per day poverty line.
Of these 3.62 billion people in need, 2.11 billion live below the Societal Poverty line; 1.82 billion people live below the $3.65 per day poverty line; and 65 million live below the $2.35 per day poverty line.
Percentage of Poor People in the World at different poverty lines
Are the Rich getting Poorer?
According to Forbes, virtually half the number of billionaires on the list is poorer compared to the previous year. Fall in stock prices, wounded unicorns and a decline in interest rates are listed to have caused the deterioration in the wealth of world billionaires.
Yet, when the rich get poorer, it does not place them in the same place as when the poor get richer.
The United States accounts for the most billionaires with 735 persons with a total worth of $4.5 trillion. China retains the second country with the most billionaires as it gathers 562 persons with a collective worth of $2 trillion. Following are 169 Indian nationals who are worth $675 billion.
The current World Richest Man is Bernard Arnault with a total net worth of $211 billion. According to the Index, Bernard is the chairman and CEO of Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, popularly called LVMH—a French luxury conglomerate formed from the 1987 merger of the renowned fashion house Louis Vuitton and wines and spirits company Moët Hennessy.
Bernard Arnault, 74, directs the LVMH empire’s 75 fashion and cosmetics brands, including Louis Vuitton and Sephora.
In 2018, Bernard ranked 56th in the Forbes’ list of world billionaires with a net worth of $72 billion.
His rise to the top of the list as the world’s richest person in 2023 saw the deposition of Elon Musk to the 2nd position.
Musk who is the erstwhile world’s richest man had held the title since September 2021 and is currently worth $180 billion compared to $219 billion in 2022. His fall from the top of the list was attributed to his acquisition of Twitter which reportedly cost him luxury and shrunk Tesla’s shares.
Interestingly, Bernard is the first French national to lead the ranking.
Since 2022 when Bernard ranked third, LVMH empire has grown from 70 brands to 75, a development which could have impacted his net worth among other things.
The reduction in the coverage of the assessment which saw the demotion of some wealthiest people also recorded 150 new entries out of which are: Mark Mateschitz from Austria; Rick Cohen and family, Annette Lerner and family, Arthur Dantchik and; Robert Faith, all from the United States.
Also is Rohiqa Cyrus Mistry from India; Shapoor Mistry from Ireland; Maria Angelicoussis from Greece; Rekha Jhunjhunwala from India and Alexander Gerko from the United Kingdom.
The youngest billionaire on the list is the Italian Clemente Del Vecchio, 18. He is one of the six children of the late chairman of Essilor Luxottica (the largest eyeglasses firm in the world), Leonardo Del Vecchio.
Clemente is new to the list. He became the world’s youngest billionaire after inheriting a 12.5% stake in his father’s fortune in 2022.
Dangote remains Africa’s richest man in 12 years
The business tycoon and a Nigerian, Aliko Dangote who is the founder and chairman of Dangote Group tops the list as Africa’s richest man with a net worth of $14.2 billion. The African businessman retains the position for 12 consecutive years.
The Africans that made it to the list are 18 and they originated from just 8 African countries out of the 54 countries in the continent. These countries are South Africa, Egypt, Estwatini, Algeria, Zimbabwe, Morocco, Tanzania, and Nigeria.
On the global scale, Dangote was ranked 124th in the world alongside Indian billionaire industrialist Kumar Birla.
Dangote’s business areas span across cement, sugar, salt, fertilizer, pasta and oil and gas. Recently, the Dangote petroleum refinery and the petrochemical plant were commissioned in May 2023, the largest single-train refinery in the world which has the capacity to produce 650,000 barrels of crude oil per day.
His cement factory, a subsidiary of the Dangote Group of Companies, is Africa’s largest and the biggest cement producer in Sub-Saharan Africa. Dangote Cement has a presence in 10 countries across Africa including Congo, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, and Zambia. It has the capacity to produce 51.6 million metric tonnes annually.
Other Nigerians that made it to the billionaires’ list are Abdulsamad Rabiu and Mike Adenuga.
Rabiu is the founder of BUA Group, a business that deals with the production of sugar, cement, flour milling, oil milling, port concession, real estate development and oil and gas and Mike Adenuga got his wealth from telecommunications and oil production. The latter founded Globacom, the third largest telecom network operator in Nigeria with 55 million subscribers and Conoil, an oil exploration outfit that oversees 6 oil blocks in the Niger Delta.
Adulsamad Rabiu was ranked 249th in the world with a net worth of $8.2 billion while Mike Adenuga ranked 418th and incurred a net worth of $6.1 billion.
Forbes calculated the net worth of billionaires across the world using stock prices and exchange rates from March 10, 2023.
The list focuses on individuals rather than multigenerational families who share wealth. An exception is the inclusion of the wealth of a billionaire’s spouse and children in the case where the billionaire is the founder of the fortune.
Ownership structure from February 2022 before the outbreak of the Russian-Ukraine war was used as the yardstick to measure the fortunes of Russian billionaires. “This was before many made transfers of assets to managers, friends and others in an effort to protect their holdings from sanctions” the report stated.
The significance of billionaires to Development
Despite criticisms and objections against the extreme fortune amassed by the super-rich and experts’ submissions that argue for an increase in taxation on the rich to benefit the poor, most billionaires have proven to be a strong pillar of development in their countries and around the world through business investments and charity works.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Bill and Melinda Gates through their foundation supported vaccine research towards finding a lasting solution to the epidemic disease. A sum of $1.75 billion was committed to the cause.
Similarly, former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg donated $330 million towards the same cause. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg committed $100 million to COVID-19 funding as well.
Aside from situation-induced donation, the presence of billionaires in both national and international economies impacts economic growth and advancement.
As of 2016, the Zorlu Group in Turkey, a major exporter of appliances, employed 30,000 people and accounts for 3% of Turkey’s manufacturing exports, a World Bank report shows. The Zorlu Group’s founder, Ahmet Nazif Zorlu, is worth $2 billion.
In Africa, Dangote Group through its subsidiary —Dangote Cement, supported 54,005 jobs in four African countries namely; Nigeria, Ethiopia, Senegal and South Africa. This is according to the socio-economic impact survey carried out on the company’s operations by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
In its 2020 annual report, it was recorded that Dangote Cement spent about ₦2,852 billion on community development causes which include strategic sponsorships, community projects, donations, charity gifts, and community affairs expenses. The cost of this exercise is a 157.4% increase from the 2019 total spending of ₦1,108 billion, the report stated.
Despite the huge amounts spent on public relations and donations by these billionaires and their companies, the adverse effects of their sole profit-making motives on their business ethics, employee welfare, economic inequalities, and environmental degradation remains an ongoing debate and a lingering development concern.