Dangote, Rabiu, Adenuga are richer than 83 million Nigerians combined - Report

Oxfam in a recent report has stated that three of the richest Nigerian citizens are wealthier than 83 million others put together.

The British-founded confederation of 21 independent charitable organizations focusing on the alleviation of global poverty made this public in a report titled ‘Davos 2023 Inequality Report’ unveiled at a media briefing on Monday in Abuja according to Dailytrust reports.

The report comes off the back of the latest Forbes highlighting that Aliko Dangote, Abdulsamad Rabiu, and Mike Adenuga are the three richest men in Nigeria.

According to reports, the three aforementioned have a combined wealth of $26.8 billion.

Nigeria's richest men net worth Aliko Dangote- $13.5 billion Abdulsamad Rabiu- $7.6 billion Mike Adenuga- $5.7 billion

What Oxfam is saying about Nigeria's inequality

According to the report, in Nigeria, the richest 0.003 percent of Nigerians (6,355 individuals worth $5m and above) have 1.4 times more wealth than 107 million other Nigerians.

Country Director, Oxfam in Nigeria, Dr. Vincent Ahonsi on his part said: “The wealth of Nigerian billionaires has grown by a third since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The richest men in Nigeria have more wealth than 83 million Nigerians. "The three richest one percent grabbed nearly two-thirds of all new wealth worth $42trn created since 2020, almost twice as much money as the bottom 99 percent of the world’s population.”

Taxing the rich

Oxfam is also calling on governments around the world including Nigeria to tax the rich. They posited that there must be higher taxation of the world’s super-rich persons to breach the inequality gap in many sectors and that for the past decades, they extraordinarily grabbed half of all new wealth, at the expense of other citizens.

Part of the report noted: “A wealth tax of two percent on the millionaires, three percent on those with wealth above $50m and five percent on the Nigerian billionaires would raise $3.2bn annually. "This would be enough to double health spending."

NBA