Forbes Names Nigerian Billionaires, Others Among 50 Wealthiest Black Americans in 2024
- Forbes has announced the 2024 ForbesBLK 50 list, which recognises the achievements of the wealthiest and most influential Black Americans
- The new ranking places greater emphasis on leadership across a variety of industries, innovation, and societal effect
- The honorees include three Nigerians: Adebayo Ogunlesi, Tope Awotona, and Wemimo Abbey, recognised for their entrepreneurial achievements
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Forbes has unveiled the 2024 ForbesBLK 50 list, which celebrates the achievements of the wealthiest and most influential Black Americans.
Source: UGC
The new list highlights leadership across diverse industries, innovation, and societal impact, while still placing significant emphasis on economic worth as a key metric.
Three Nigerians—Adebayo Ogunlesi ($1.7 billion), Tope Awotona ($1.4 billion), and Wemimo Abbey—are among the honorees. They are recognised for their innovative contributions and business achievements, which have earned them a spot on this prestigious list.
Wemimo Abbey
Abbey is a co-founder and co-CEO of Esusu, a fintech firm based in New York that reports rent payments to credit bureaus to assist tenants in improving their credit histories and ratings. Esusu's service is currently available at over 20,000 residences, and around 1.8 million Americans have recorded rent payments using Esusu.
The business also introduced MyEsusu, a direct-to-consumer application that allows users to monitor their credit ratings and establish credit. At a $1 billion value, Esusu raised $130 million in investment at the beginning of 2022. Growing up in Lagos, Nigeria, Abbey worked as a mergers and acquisitions consultant at PWC before starting Esusu. She also co-founded a data analytics firm and a non-profit.
Tope Awotona
Calendly, a scheduling software firm valued at $3 billion by private investors in 2021, was founded and is led by Awotona. Awotona, born in Lagos, Nigeria, relocated to Atlanta when he was fifteen. He attended the University of Georgia to study computer technology before deciding to specialize in business and management information.
Awotona founded Calendly in 2013 after working as a salesman for multiple software companies and starting a few unsuccessful startups. He was annoyed with the emails needed to set up meetings, so he cashed in his 401(k) to start the company.
Following years of operating Calendly entirely independently, Awotona raised $350 million in 2021 to expand the business. He is thought to be worth $1.4 billion now.
Adebayo Ogunlesi
Ogunlesi, a Nigerian native who is currently a citizen of the United States, is a cofounder of Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), a private equity firm based in New York. Ogunlesi remained GIP's chairman and CEO after BlackRock purchased the company in October for $12.5 billion in cash and stock.
Ogunlesi, who graduated from Oxford with a Bachelor of Arts, Harvard Law School with a Juris Doctor, and Harvard Business School with an MBA, is estimated by Forbes to be worth $1.7 billion.
In the early 1980s, Ogunlesi worked as a clerk for Justice Thurgood Marshall of the Supreme Court before becoming an attorney at Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York. Ogunlesi worked as an investment banker at Credit Suisse for more than 20 years until cofounding GIP in 2006.
List of most powerful African women in 2024
Legit.ng earlier reported that globally, women still encounter obstacles that hinder their ability to attain and hold onto power.
However, a select handful are breaking barriers in politics, entertainment, and business to emerge as some of the most powerful people influencing the modern world.
Five African women have earned their spots on Forbes' 2024 list of the World's 100 Most Powerful Women, which includes these changemakers.
Proofreading by James, Ojo Adakole, journalist and copy editor at Legit.ng.
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