Telecom billionaire and one of Nigeria’s oil barons Mike Adenuga makes a comeback as Nigeria’s second-richest man with a $7.4 billion net worth valuation, pushing Abdul Samad Rabiu to third position.
This surge in wealth can be attributed to Forbes’ recent reassessment of the valuation of his mobile phone network, Globacom, which he founded and currently stands as the third-largest telecom service provider in Nigeria.
Adenuga had ceded the second-richest position to Abdul Samad Rabiu due to a heavy drop in net worth value. However, with Forbes revisiting their evaluations, he now stands as the second-richest person in Nigeria, trailing only behind Aliko Dangote.
Recall that Adenuga had faced a significant dip in his net worth, plummeting to $3.6 billion in June 2023, as reported by Nairametrics. The decline, from the initial $6.3 billion recorded in January according to Forbes, was influenced by multiple factors.
The unification of the naira in June adversely affected his net worth, coupled with the performance downturn of his stake in Conoil.
The Chairman of Conoil and founder of Globacom has experienced fluctuations in his net worth over the years, with it reaching $7.3 billion in 2022 and attaining its pinnacle at an impressive $10 billion in 2015.
Despite his billionaire status, Adenuga’s career journey has not been without challenges.
Mike Adenuga’s challenges
Recently, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) approved a partial disconnection of Globacom by MTN over the former’s refusal to pay interconnect debt.
This partial disconnection implies that subscribers of Globacom will be unable to initiate calls to any MTN numbers, while still being able to receive inbound calls from MTN customers.
The NCC officially communicated this information through a public notice issued on Monday, setting a 10-day notice period starting from January 8 before the disconnection is implemented.
Contrary to these reports, Globacom Ltd. has denied any outstanding interconnect charges owed to MTN. A source within Globacom, as reported by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday, revealed that the purported amount of N1.6 billion had been paid without any dispute.
-Credit: Nairametric
