Forbes Flaunts Adenuga’s $5Bn Wealth

Forbes, the leading source for reliable business news and financial information has put Mike Adenuga’s wealth at nearly $5billion and said that the telecom mogul is the second richest Nigerian after Aliko Dangote .

The latest update on the firm’s website said that Adenuga, 60 made his wealth from telecom and oil and is the 325 richest man in the world.

According to Forbes, Adenuga who holds Master of Business Administration from Pace University,  New York is 5th Africa's 40 richest.

Adenuga is the founder of Globacom, Nigeria's second-largest mobile phone network, with 24 million subscribers.

He also owns Conoil Producing, an oil exploration company which holds the rights to some of Nigeria's most lucrative oil fields.

He made his first fortune at age 26 when he returned to Nigeria after studying in the U.S. He took over his mother's sawmill business and distributed lace and Coca-Cola.

The mogul made some powerful friends within Nigeria's military and relied on those relationships to corner lucrative state construction contracts.

According to Forbes, Nigeria's former military president, Ibrahim Babangida, awarded him an oil prospecting license.

Adenuga used that to build Conoil Producing and became the first Nigerian to strike oil in commercial quantities.

Notoriously private, he rarely talks to the press and travels with a retinue of bodyguards.