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Japa: Dangers in relocating to Canada, why you must think twice
Following the unpleasant news of the death of a young Nigerian in a tent outside a shelter home in Toronto, Canada, and a suggestion that it may just be a similitude of the horror Nigerians who have been thronging to that North American country have been facing, Gboyega Alaka had an insightful engagement with a Nigerian, Michael Kehinde Abiodun, who has been resident there for 25 years.
On November, 2023, a Nigerian male asylum seeker was found dead in a tent outside a Canada shelter for the homeless.
The man, not named, reportedly died while trying to keep himself warm in Peel, a regional municipality in Greater Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Nigerian, believed to be in his 40s, according to a local newspaper, Toronto Star, died on Wednesday, November 15. Patrick Brown, mayor of Brampton, confirmed the man to be a Nigerian who had come to seek asylum in the country.
Preliminary investigation said the man must have died from excessive inhalation of carbon monoxide while trying to keep his tent warm. He reportedly had to make do with the tent when he could not find space in the shelter. The mayor also noted that the shelter system in the region was overstretched by over 300 per cent, which left the deceased no choice but to make do with the tent.
A damning headline by Tola Owoeye of the Foundation for Investigative Journalism which stated: Nigerian Asylum Seeker Found Dead in Canada Shelter. Hundreds More May Follow,’ especially sent panic waves through the minds of Nigerians who had relatives and friends who recently migrated to the North American country. This was further aggravated by the fact that the authorities weren’t immediately forthcoming with his identity.
That horrible news becomes scarier, when juxtaposed with Environment and Climate Change Canada declaration that more than 80 people die each year in that country from exposure/hypothermia.
A Nigerian-Canadian, Michael Kehinde Abiodun, who has lived in Canada for 25 years and runs 3C Autism and Mental Heath Supports Services in Toronto, said he was called in to supervise the burial of the man, apparently because of his Nigerian roots.
“According to information,” Abiodun explained, “the shelters were full already. The tents outside are meant to accommodate people until they could find space for them in the shelter. Toronto being a commercial gang lion of Canada is highly populated, and could be likened to Lagos, because of its abundant opportunities. So the shelter gets filled up from time to time, meaning some have to stay in the tents outside. This guy that died, I won’t mention his name, was buried last month.
He was a Chartered Quantity Surveyor back home in Nigeria. His wife was also a Chartered Quantity Surveyor. They came in about six years ago but their papers didn’t sail through. I’m not sure, but I suspect they came in as visitors and their application for permanent stay or work permit was not granted. They were asked to leave the country, from what I learnt, but I think they were still looking for how they could maneuver their ways. Unfortunately the marriage broke down and both went their separate ways. To be honest with you, the guy had it very difficult, so he went to the shelter. He was using the tent as temporary shelter. According to information, they found the body lying in the cold; he had apparently been dead for days before he was discovered.”
According to Abiodun, “Canada is a terribly cold country, where you cannot survive on the street. Such person, if he doesn’t get help, is likely to die of hypothermia. “
Settling in Canada not tea-party
“The situation that man faced is common with people who come into the country without the right papers,” Abiodun, who is President of Yoruba Community Association (YCA) and Board Secretary of the Nigerian Canadian Association (NCA), Toronto, expanded.
“A lot of people who come here and are not able to find their footing are facing depression and other mental issues. To be able to find your footing here, you must regularise your stay by getting the permanent residence permit, which is as good as citizenship. A permanent residence permit will allow you to stay in the country; from there you can apply for citizenship certificate. Without those things, it will be difficult for one to get leverage.”
How did the man survive for six years without a work permit?
“Probably his work permit expired and was not renewed. To work here you must obtain work permit but if after expiration the permit is not renewed, it becomes an issue.
I really didn’t know him but his family members contacted me. Because his wife didn’t have appropriate papers, she could not be present at his burial. I, however, learnt they had one child.
“There is the story of another guy who died in June last year, three weeks after coming. He was actually sleeping in a shelter; it was from there that he was rushed to the hospital before he died. Another bitter truth is that most of our people who come here have underlying illness; usually tropical illnesses, but without adequate papers, they can’t access proper healthcare. Some of them may not even be aware of their illnesses until they get here. This young man was in his thirties. I also learnt he came in with a masters degree, and that he was doing well back home; a millionaire, as a matter of fact.”
Why then would he give up all that he had for uncertainty?
“I’d say greed. Seventy per cent of it is down to greed. A lot of them were comfortable back home. Everything is regimented here. Yes, there are free food spots, but you can’t compare it to having your own means of livelihood and eating food of your choice.”
Do more migrants run into this conundrum?
“I’ll put it this way,” Abiodun began in a reflective tone. “If you’re embarking on that kind of journey, make full enquiry from the people living in your country of destination; get them to tell you the fact of the situation on ground. Read the news; 90 per cent of the things we read on the news are correct. I have a lot of people who are close to me who want to come here; I always advise them that if you’re coming, make sure you get yourself prepared; have your own money; enough money; so that if the reality you meet does not meet your expectation, you can go back home. A woman here lost her three kids about six years ago. She was due for deportation but she refused to leave the country. She kept appealing, going to lawyers. It was snow period and she was travelling with her three kids alongside her friend and her own kid, when their vehicle rolled over in an accident due to bad weather caused by snow. Her three kids died, while the only child of her friend survived.
“But if you look at it critically, coming to Canada with her three kids is a testimony to the fact that she wasn’t doing too badly back in Nigeria, because it’s not cheap paying the passage of that huge number. I always tell them, go back home and face your business or job. I also tell them, if you don’t have money, don’t come here. Don’t send your children to school here if you can’t afford to pay their school fees. Don’t say ‘Oh, they would do menial jobs…’ Those jobs are not available. Things are very unlike those good old days. The population is increasing everyday just like Lagos.”
Not El-Dorado
Back home in Nigeria, Lagos specifically, more and more youths, even middle-aged people are preparing hard to relocate to Canada. Many would do anything and accept any kind of visa to just step in the North American country. A drive past visa processing locations, even as this feature is being knocked together, shows huge human activities, alongside vehicular traffic. Many are prepared to sell everything they worked for, in what has been termed ‘trading certainty for uncertainty’.
A hip-hop artist, Magnito, even sang a song, which literally endorsed Canada as a panacea to struggling Nigerian youths.
Abiodun, however, scoffed at such ignorance. According to him, a major misconception is to think that people who come to Canada attain instant success or immediate financial prosperity.
“It’s not like that. Rome was not built in a day. This is a highly regimented country. Things grow here in arithmetical progression, not in geometrical progression; so it is a false impression to think that you instantly become financially successful once you come in here. There are professionals – medical doctors, chartered surveyors, lawyers, engineers, who came in with the same mentality that things would be easy and instant, but who were disappointed. They have their regulatory laws here; so you just can’t jump on the beat and start practising. You have to undergo some procedures and processes before you can qualify to practice. If you’re a medical doctor back home, you have to sit for their professional examinations until you pass; and that can take up to five or six years. We have lawyers who are doing healthcare jobs while waiting to pass their exams and get their certification. The funny thing is that some eventually forget whatever certificate they came with and face the healthcare job for life, because they’re already making enough money for a good living. Aside the challenge of certification, one other reason it is difficult for migrant lawyers to practice is that they need to have their own client base. If you don’t have enough clients, how are you going to practise or survive? Not many people are fighting each other here, so the cases are not even there. Nothing like charge and bail lawyer here; what they have are corporate issues.
“Overall, it takes an average migrant about six years to settle in Canada. However, if you come in with a permanent resident paper and you’re armed with a skill that they need, then you can get a job within six months. I’m talking of jobs like barber, plumber and the likes.”
Blames deceptive immigration agents
Abiodun also put a lot of blame at the feet of self-acclaimed immigration agents who are only out to make their money and would paint all sorts of false colours to con ignorant and desperate people.
Nigerians who come in here without the right papers go through a lot. The immigration agents would tell them once they got here, they could work for two weeks and recoup their money. However, on getting here, some of them would discover that although they have work permit, the jobs are just not there. Some may have been given two years work permit; some even came in on visiting visa of four years; what they, however, don’t realise is that nobody would employ them on that visa. As a matter of fact, any company that gives them a job is in trouble. And if you’re talking of menial jobs, it takes a lot of courage for anyone to dare, because if anything happens to them on that job, such company would be closed down. Ordinarily, if you’re working in any organisation, they will train you on the hazards and safety measures. Also, most of the jobs that are available are factory jobs and you have to go and queue with job agencies; it’s almost like the casual jobs back home, although the conditions and remunerations are better. A lot of them are suffering, because they have had it well in Nigeria, working in well-paying white collar jobs. Eventually, they become frustrated and go into depression.
“If, for instance, you come here at the age of 45 or 50 as a visitor, for how long will you be running up and down, dodging the law officers? Eventually, some, desperate for legitimacy, would start looking for who can help them get papers; in the end, they get married to women who have papers or citizenship. Meanwhile, they’ve been married in Nigeria. And usually, they don’t tell the new wife. They also end up abandoning their family back home.”
Canada Visa Lottery, a scam
Abiodun is also quick to debunk the existence of any kind of visa lottery in Canada.
“I’ve been here 25 years and there has never been anything like Canada Visa Lottery. It’s part of the scam immigration agents use to con gullible people.”
How then did Canada become such a hot cake for would-be migrants?
“It is our people, the so-called agents that have created issues. During the Covid years, a lot of people rushed over to Canada; not because there was no Covid in Canada but because they heard that the government was giving money, 10,000 dollars to people; so some of our people who came to visit in America, crossed over. They also thought they would get papers to stay. In the end they were disappointed, as they did not get any money; however, the government allowed most of them who wanted, to stay and work. A few were, however denied and deported, while some tried to avoid deportation. Unfortunately, this is a system in which you really cannot hide. It’s like some areas in Victoria Island or Ikoyi back in Lagos, where if you’re found wandering, you’ll be fished out and interrogated. Here, if you’re on the street, it’s either you’re going somewhere or on your way back from somewhere. You must have a destination, else the police would be alerted and you would be picked up before you knew it.
“I came in on my wife’s invitation 25 years ago. It was she who first came in; she later filed for me. I can tell you for free that there has never been a time coming to Canada was easy for anyone. You have to follow the process and nothing is automatic. There are, however, many ways to come over. You can come through a student’s visa; you can come in with a work permit; if somebody here has need for your skill and there’s a shortage of it here, you can also be allowed on that account to come and work.”
One of the biggest mistakes people make is to come here on visiting visa and think that they can automatically settle in and start working. To be honest with you, you cannot even get menial jobs to do, except in rare case. The only other way is to have enough money with you as a visitor. That way, you’re able to fend for yourself and manage until things open up for you. If you don’t have money, your best bet is to have somebody you can stay with, after which you may be urged to declare yourself to the government, probably as a refugee/asylum seeker. That way, you may be taken into a shelter, after which you could officially file for a refugee stay. And this can take two, three to four years.”
Downside for asylum seekers
“As an asylum seeker, you have to get a lawyer to process refugee claimant application for you. Usually, the government will pay part of the legal fee, while you look for the rest. Your appeal may be granted or rejected. If your application is rejected, you may receive a deportation order from the government. However, once you get that deportation order, you are immediately taken to a detention post, from where you would be flown back to your country.
“One interesting thing is that once you are granted refugee status, you can no longer go back or visit your country. This is because the information you have relayed is that your life or very existence was under threat there. You may even be turned back at the airport.”
Culture shock, depression and marriage breakdown
“Another major issue people go through is culture shock. First, there is the work ethics, which is quite different, and for which my company, 3C Autism and Mental Heath Support Services offers training. Then there is the difference in family orientation, which often results in marriage breakdown. The law here supports and empowers the women a lot; which means you cannot control your wife or bark orders at her and expect her to just fall in line, like you do in Nigeria and most parts of Africa. In the case of an altercation or fight, your wife might call in the police, and you could be sent out of your home. It doesn’t matter that you bought the house with your hard-earned money. This has caused many men to come down with depression and other forms of mental illness.
“The resultant frustration has also led to the death of some people. There is this story of a man who came in with his wife in 2010; they had two kids; one day the woman just left the house with the two kids because they had problems in their marriage. In the end, the man came down with depression.
“There is the sad story of another Nigerian man who came into Canada a few months ago. The story had it that he had a good job back home and comfortable, but he came in anyway. Somehow, his family members were calling his line but he wasn’t picking; in panic, they contacted somebody else to help check up on him. Alas, he was found dead.
“Our government should also make healthcare accessible for the people. Many of our people arrive here without knowing what they had in their system. I think with good healthcare, security and electricity, Nigeria would be a far better place.”
Advice to Nigerians coming to Canada
“If you have good networking system or you know people living and working here, get them to tell you the truth. The truth might be bitter, but truth is truth; and don’t doubt them or prefer the rosy pictures being painted by immigration agents.
“Also make sure you have enough fund before leaving Nigeria. I, however, always advise them that if you have the kind of money we’re talking about, use it to do something meaningful for yourself and live a better life in Nigeria. What you consider huge money in Nigeria may turn out negligible here when converted to the Canadian dollar. I have a friend in Nigeria, whom an agent misled to sell his car because he got him a work permit. When I asked how much he made from the sale, he said he didn’t even have enough for air ticket, so I told him not to bother. Now he goes to church and other places on okada (commercial motorcycle). I hear how people sell everything they had only to come here and realise it’s not as easy as they thought or were told. I also know many people who have willingly returned home, seeing that they could not cope with the harsh reality on ground and were not ready to be living like fugitives. Nigerian youths should just get themselves together, restrategise and hold their leaders responsible. Face them squarely, and they will have a better country.”
But there are people who have come to Canada and made good.
“Yes, surely. Some people are investors; they came with a lot of money and invested – in finance, real estate, business and other sectors and are doing fine. I know a lot of Nigerians who are doing very well here. But you either have money enough to ride the initial waves of turbulence or you have people who can support you until you settle well. Like I said, the money you consider big in Nigeria may be negligible here. Imagine coming with 100,000 dollars; it will only last you a little while, by the time you rent a house, buy a car or even pay your children’s school fees and utility bills. But such money can serve you well in Nigeria.
Tell us about yourself. How have you lived in Canada for 25 years?
My name is Michael Kehinde Abiodun; I am the President of Yoruba Community Association (YCA) and Board Secretary of Nigerian Community Association (NCA). I am an Autism Consultant – working with people living with autism and mental health. I have my own company, 3C Autism and Mental Support Services. You can call me a health worker if you like. It’s a special job under health services. I went to college for two years after I got here 25 years ago. Since then, I’ve been working with these special needs population. It’s not as if things have been extremely easy with me. Here, things are totally different, unlike in Nigeria, where you could spend three hours on your job and four hours on your phone. Here, you have to be highly committed. Work ethics in this environment are very important.
“Some of the little things that you neglect or don’t care about in Nigeria are taken seriously here. So 3C provides capable, creative, credible support services; that’s why we call it three C. The Yoruba Community Association also does its best to support new migrants from Nigeria in settling well into the country. Today, we have a zoom discussion on how marriages could be saved in Canada. Nigerian marriages are crashing here, in London, in America…. Barrister Eyitayo Dada will be speaking. We are also teaching our children how to speak, read and write Yoruba. The Yoruba Community Association (YCA) will hold its annual Yoruba Picnic on July 6, 2024, while its monthly meeting holds every third Sunday of the month.”
By Gboyega Alaka, The Nation
The net worth of Nigerian-American billionaire Adebayo Ogunlesi has skyrocketed to $2.3 billion from $1.7 billion recorded on the 15th of January, one week after he was called to be a part of the OpenAI board of directors.
According to Business Insider, the staggering increase in his fortune is due to his investment portfolio, which is worth more than $1.8 billion.
The Nigerian billionaire’s appointment to OpenAI’s board comes after BlackRock and GIP signed a $12.5 billion agreement in January 2024, establishing a preeminent multi-asset infrastructure investment platform.
Under Ogunlesi’s direction, GIP grew to become the largest independent infrastructure manager in the world, managing more than $100 billion in assets.
The decision to add Ogunlesi to the OpenAI board reinforces his global reputation as a visionary leader with a track record of driving innovation and commercial success.
This portfolio encompasses investments in BlackRock, the world’s largest asset management firm, Kosmos Energy Holdings LLC, Topgolf Callaway Brands Corp., and Goldman Sachs Group. Ogunlesi’s exceptional wealth increase demonstrates his strategic investing aptitude.
By owning holdings in significant global corporations, he has established himself as one of Africa’s most powerful corporate figures.
His investments in industries ranging from asset management to energy and leisure have proven to be quite profitable, demonstrating the importance of a well-diversified portfolio. In 2024, he was one of the three Nigerians who made Forbes’ 50 Wealthiest Black Americans list.
Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State has approved the appointment of Prince Abimbola Akeem Owoade as the new Alaafin of Oyo.
This was disclosed in a statement by the commissioner for Information and Orientation, Prince Dotun Oyelade, on Friday.
While speaking on behalf of the governor, Oyelade said that Owoade, after thorough consultations and divinations, has been recommended by the Oyomesi.
“Prince Abimbola Akeem Owoade, after thorough consultations and divinations, has been recommended by the Oyomesi and approved by Governor Seyi Makinde as the new Alaafin of Oyo,” the statement read.
He said the announcement ends the legal and social disputes that followed the passing of the former Alaafin, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi III, who died on April 22, 2022.
Meanwhile, the commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Hon. Ademola Ojo, urged the people of Oyo to lend their support to the new Alaafin.
“This decision has put to rest all the socio-legal controversies that have arisen since the transition of the late Oba Adeyemi. We urge the people of Oyo State to support the new Alaafin and join the government in celebrating this historic moment,” he said.
Chairman of the House Committee on IDP, Refugee, and Migrant Affairs, Hon. Tunji Olawuyi, on Saturday, bagged prestigious Chieftaincy title of Akinrogun of Ayedun Kingdom by HRM Oba Dr. Olusegun Abayomi Rotimi, the Obajisun of Ayedun Kingdom.
The title was conferred on him by Obajisun kingdom at a grand reception organized in his honor as a politician who has contributed immensely to the development of his constituency and beyond. Ajuloopin is known for his commitment at the grassroots level impacting the less privileged and ensuring adequate human nurtures.
In his remark on Facebook post, the federal lawmaker appreciates the Ayedun kingdom for such unprecedented honour.
It was a twosome night for Mr. Eket, who traveled from Canada to marry one of the prettiest ladies in the world. But arriving in Nigeria to have a colorful wedding day and perfect marriage, his mother-in-law tasted his perfect manhood on his wedding night.
Here is my story:
“It didn’t just happen on my wedding night, the romance started when I was in Canada. I met Chika online, we got to know each other within a year and our relationship started well, as time went on I came back to Nigeria for a holiday, and I went to her house where I met her mum and other siblings. Her mum is a single mother and is very beautiful like my wife. To cut a long story short, I slept in their house that very day to familiarise myself with the family because of the way I was welcomed. Trust me, in the night my mother put on net nightwear, fully transparent, she came into the sitting room while her daughter went to get something outside the house. I melted. Her boobs were still very standing and sexy, and she went straight to her bar to pick alcoholic wine, turning her back was awesome, my manhood couldn’t withstand such pressure but I was able to control myself.
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I had a good night in that house after playing with my fiancee we both slept together and the following morning I went back to my house and told my friend what happened. In a few days, I returned to Canada, and my relationship with Chika went deeper, talking on the phone and we started planning the wedding. But there was a day my mother-in-law called me on video but I missed it. The following morning I called back, but she declined. I later sent her a message that I missed her call she it was a mistake.
Another day, she called on WhatsApp video and I picked it up, what I saw was bad, she didn’t put her face to the Camera, I saw her standing nipples, but I must confess that she had good body skin, even at her 50s she still having it glowing. I said Mummy you are video call but she didn’t reply and I didn’t hear any voice I saw her lying down facing the camera but her face not showing. I cut the video but I couldn’t tell my fiancee. I told my friends and they went on to check her on Facebook to know who she was. My friends came back to tell me, you are going to marry two wives same day, they were joking because of her beauty.
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Fast forward to my wedding night, my wife and her friends had drunk, she was tired and slept off tirelessly in the bed. We are just five at home that night because of privacy. My mother-in-law, my wife, house help, and one person from my own family. I was in the store checking how some things were fixed improperly, I wore a singlet and boxer, and she wore that same net with wrapper. She was with Hennessy and a glass cup, she was looking intoxicated. She looked into my eyes and said Eket, thank you for all you have done for my daughter, the next thing, she stretches her hand to my chest, twisting my nipples, I told her mum what, and the next thing she grabbed my manhood, I must confess to you that I open my mouth to her standing boobs, and we started having it from back.
It was that day she told me, she was not the biological mother of Chika. But after that night, we had it two more times before she relocated to Luxembourg permanently. A few months later, I asked Chika how to visit her in Luxembourg, and that was when she told me, that the woman was just her street area mother that they were not related, and that she was from Imo State while Chika was from Anambra State.
Today, we are blessed with three kids but Chika never knew what happened between me and her area mother.
When Forbes released its annual list of the richest people in the world earlier in 2024, it noted that the number of billionaires had climbed to its highest ever at 2,781. Cut to the end of the year and it is quite clear that the number of billionaires in 2025 will rise even further. A snapshot of what is to come can be seen from the impeccable rise in the fortunes of the 10 richest billionaires in the world as of December 2024, most particularly Elon Musk.
It is worth noting that while the first half of the year may not have been outstanding for most, the latter half turned out to be remarkably different, particularly due to the outcome of the US Presidential elections.
As Donald Trump emerged victorious on 5 November, the world’s 10 richest billionaires added a massive USD 64 billion in a single day to their cumulative net worth. The biggest gainer was, of course, Elon Musk, who added USD 26.5 billion following Trump’s win.
While a handful, maybe one or two at most, of the 10 richest billionaires might see their net worth fall over the next few weeks due to volatility in the markets owing to a series of political factors in the world, most of them will remain on the list.
It is also not a surprise that nine of the top 10 billionaires of 2024 are from the United States. The US is like a modern-day Roman empire, where wealth creation – by any means necessary – is the cornerstone of its societal and governmental policies, and, therefore, the foundation upon which it stands. This is why they had a record 813 billionaires earlier in the year, as Forbes data revealed. (Though Hurun Global Rich List 2024, released around the same time, suggested China has more.) Obviously, that number will go up in the 2025 list.
It is also noteworthy that most American billionaires are now richer than they were a year prior, irrespective of issues such as inflation, wars and political unrest affecting almost all of the world in 2024. Whether anyone likes it or not, the re-election of Trump has strongly boosted the confidence of investors in the US markets at least for the time being. There are clear indications that the mega businesses of the US, especially the semiconductor and broader tech enterprises with focus on artificial intelligence (AI), may see themselves expand massively.
(Note: Data on net worth, age, nationality and source from Forbes Real-Time Billionaires chart as of 17 December 2024.)
Here are the world’s 10 richest billionaires of 2024
Michael Dell
Net worth: Around USD 121 billion
Age: 59
Nationality: United States
The chairman and CEO of Dell Technologies has doubled his net worth since 2023. Dell founded his namesake computer company in 1984. The world-renowned company is one of the leading manufacturers of personal computers. In 2016, Dell acquired computer storage giant EMC to become Dell Technologies. Thus, Dell and Dell EMC are subsidiaries of Dell Technologies.
According to a 2023 Forbes report Michael Dell holds a 50 per cent stake in Dell Technologies. He also has a 40 per cent stake in American cloud computing company VMware and has a private investment firm, DFO Management. At the time, around 75 per cent of his then USD 66 billion net worth came from his shares in Dell and VMware. In November 2023, American semiconductor maker Broadcom acquired VMware for USD 69 billion. Michael Dell received cash and shares in Broadcom in exchange for his stake in VMware.
That deal is the reason why he became one of the top 10 wealthiest billionaires in mid-December of 2024. Dell owns 210 million shares in Broadcom. The value of his holdings rose as the company’s stocks skyrocketed and its market cap crossed USD 1 trillion.
Steve Ballmer
Net worth: Around USD 131 billion
Source: Microsoft
Age: 68
Nationality: United States
His net worth may go north or south, but nothing will take away the fact that Steve Ballmer has achieved something rare in the world of business in 2024 — surpassing the wealth of a founder of the very company in which he worked as an employee.
In June 2024, Ballmer became the sixth-richest person in the world with a net worth of USD 157 billion. He is still the only person in the world with a net worth of more than USD 100 billion who has earned his fortune as an employee and not as a founder. By comparison, Bill Gates, who co-founded Microsoft, has a net worth of USD 108 billion and is ranked 14th on Forbes‘ real-time billionaires as of 9 December 2024.
Ballmer, the employee No.30 of Microsoft, holds roughly 4 per cent stocks in the company, which is the world’s third-biggest by market cap with an estimated worth of USD 3.2 trillion. He succeeded Gates as Microsoft’s CEO in 2000 and remained in the position till in 2014. The same year he bought the National Basketball Association (NBA) team Los Angeles Clippers for USD 2 billion. The team is now worth an estimated USD 5.5 billion.
Warren Buffett
Net worth: Around USD 142 billion
Age: 94
Nationality: United States
The “Oracle of Omaha”, Warren Buffett is the oldest billionaire among the top 10 richest people in the world by net worth. Buffett is a kind of a czar among stock market enthusiasts; investors keep a keen eye on what the nonagenarian is trading in, as it can give them clear indications as to what may or may not perform in the long run.
For three straight quarters in 2024, Buffett, through his holding company Berkshire Hathaway, maintained a steady retreat from the stock markets. By early November 2024, Berkshire Hathaway had around USD 325 billion in cash. Yet Buffett’s net worth rose by more than USD 8 billion on the back of Berkshire Hathaway’s A share stock price rising by around 7 per cent in November.
A September 2024 Forbes report gives greater insight into Berkshire Hathaway’s portfolio. According to it, its five biggest investments include Apple, American Express Company, Bank of America, Coca-Cola and Chevron. Berkshire Hathaway also wholly owns several prominent companies. Among them are insurance company GEICO, freight railroad company BNSF Railway, battery maker Duracell and fast-food chain Dairy Queen.
Buffett is one of the world’s most famous philanthropists. He has promised to give away 99 per cent of his wealth and has donated around USD 60 billion to date, much of which has been through the foundations of his children and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Sergey Brin
Net worth: Around USD 154.5 billion
Age: 51
Nationality: United States
Sergey Brin, the son of a mathematician father, escaped the Soviet Union at the age of six with his family. He met Larry Page while pursuing a doctorate at Stanford University. Soon the two friends dropped out and founded a search engine named Google from a friend’s garage in 1998. The rest is perhaps the greatest story in the world of technology.
The company went public in 2004 and is now a subsidiary of Alphabet — a holding company created by Brin and Page in 2015. Alphabet is the fifth biggest in the world with a market cap of over USD 2.1 trillion. YouTube is also part of Alphabet as it was acquired by Google in 2006. Advertisement company DoubleClick, AI company Deepmind, wearable fitness device maker Fitbit and satellite navigation provider Waze are among Alphabet’s key acquisitions.
Brin served as the president of Alphabet till 2019. He has a controlling stake in the company. According to Nasdaq, Brin and Page own a 6 per cent stake in the company. This means that Brin has a share of 3 per cent.
Brin also has investments in other companies. A notable one was electric car maker Tesla, in which he invested in 2006 — two years before Elon Musk became its CEO. In 2021, reports said that he had sold all of his Tesla shares for USD 366 million. He has also invested around USD 250 million into his aerospace research company LTA Research, which is building high-tech airships.
Larry Page
Net worth: Around USD 162 billion
Age: 51
Nationality: United States
The other half of the Google co-founder duo, Larry Page stepped down as CEO of Alphabet in 2019 but remains on its board and is a controlling shareholder. His fortune almost doubled through 2020 and 2021, quite like several other top 10 billionaires at the time, during the pandemic. Like Brin, Page owns around 3 per cent of Alphabet.
Bernard Arnault & family
Net worth: USD 171 billion
Age: 75
Nationality: France
The only non-American among the 10 richest people, Bernard Arnault was the richest person in the world in Forbes’ annual billionaires list in 2023 and 2024. He had a net worth of USD 233 billion in the latter list. But the chairman and CEO of French luxury goods giant LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, who until March 2024 held on to his place, has since seen his net worth fall by several billions.
Weaker sales in China resulted in the conglomerate’s stock prices tanking by 20 per cent in six months. Fortune reported in September 2024 that the drop in stock price resulted in Arnault finding his net worth slashed by USD 54 billion. According to Forbes’ estimates, he lost USD 9 billion in November alone as shares of LVMH fell by 6 per cent.
Arnault owns around 48 per cent of LVMH. His holding company, Agache, controls Financière Agache. They back Aglaé Ventures, a venture capital firm which has investments in Netflix (whose co-founder, Reed Hastings, is also a billionaire) as well as TikTok’s parent ByteDance. In November 2024, Agache became a majority shareholder of the Ligue 2 football team Paris FC with a stake of 52.4 per cent.
With LVMH, Arnault also has a 40 per cent stake in private equity firm L Catterton. The firm, which was founded in 1989, has under its management USD 34 billion worth of assets around the world. Among its investments in Asia are China’s Trendy International Group, India’s PVR Cinemas, Singapore’s Charles & Keith, and South Korean luxury eyewear major Gentle Monster whose client list includes entertainment icons such as Beyoncé, Rihanna, Kendrick Lamar, Billie Eilish, and Jennie of BLACKPINK.
Mark Zuckerberg
Net worth: USD 216 billion
Age: 40
Nationality: United States
The youngest billionaire among the top 10 of 2024, Mark Zuckerberg leads the world’s largest social media company as its CEO. The story of how he co-founded Facebook (now Meta Platforms) as a 19-year-old student of Harvard University in 2004 has been retold umpteen times and recounted in the biographical movie The Social Network (2010).
Musk, who currently owns around 13 per cent of his company’s stocks, first entered the top 10 on Forbes billionaires list in 2016 with a net worth of USD 44.6 billion. He has been among the top 10 in all successive years barring 2022 and 2023. Between 2023 and 2024, his net worth increased by more than USD 112 billion, returning him among the top 10 in Forbes’ 2024 list.
In October 2024, he entered the exclusive list of billionaires with a net worth of more than USD 200 billion — the first time that Forbes had four people with a similar or higher net worth. He is now worth more, which means Zuckerberg will certainly be among the 10 richest billionaires in the world when Forbes releases its 2025 list.
Larry Ellison
Net worth: Around 217 billion
Age: 80
Nationality: United States
While the meteoric rise in the net worth of Jensen Huang has been the talk of the town since 2023, the one who perhaps went under the radar despite the phenomenal gains he made is Larry Ellison.
Until 2020, Ellison, the chairman, chief technology officer and co-founder of software giant Oracle, was far from any top 10 richest persons list. At the time his fortune was somewhere around USD 60 billion. But today, it is more than 280 per cent what it was just over four years ago. In fact, Ellison and Bezos have been engaged in a close contest for the No.2 spot among the world’s richest persons for quite some time in 2024, till as recently as 1 December, when the former was behind only Musk.
So, how did Ellison manage this astonishing rise and end up becoming one of the 10 richest billionaires of 2024? The short answer is AI. Oracle is now a major driver of the AI boom and has partnered with Huang’s NVIDIA in key areas. Oracle is also a major player in cloud computing and services. Its stocks have risen by as much as 64 per cent in 2024 alone. This directly increases Ellison’s net worth, since he owns 40 per cent of the company.
Ellison also owns somewhere around 1.4 per cent of Tesla stocks. He was on the board of the electric car major from 2018 till August 2022, the period after which his shareholding information has not been disclosed.
Jeff Bezos
Net worth: Around USD 246 billion
Age: 60
Nationality: United States
The chairman of Amazon, Jeff Bezos gained around USD 19 billion in November due to an 11 per cent rise in the shares of his e-commerce behemoth. Unlike Musk, however, Bezos has seen more stability in his fortune in the long run.
Forbes notes that Bezos’ director to The Washington Post, the prestigious media house he owns, not to endorse a presidential candidate ahead of the 2024 US Presidential elections led to a loss of “a couple hundred thousand subscribers”. But the loss is insignificant to Bezos as The Washington Post itself has been struggling financially for months, according to multiple media reports.
At the time of his divorce with ex-wife MacKenzie Scott, he retained 12 per cent of Amazon’s shares and she got 4 per cent. Today, he holds 10 per cent of Amazon.
Bezos was the world’s richest person for four consecutive years on Forbes’ list of the world’s billionaires from 2018 through 2021. He was the third richest person in Forbes’ 2024 list and seems to be ready to become the second-richest in the 2025 list. However, as of the end of December, the gap in the wealth between him and the richest man, Musk, is more than USD 200 billion. That’s a titanic difference because the figure alone is more than the net worth of anyone after Zuckerberg, the fourth-richest person.
Elon Musk
Net worth: Around USD 454.5 billion
Age: 53
Nationality: United States
Elon Musk was undoubtedly the biggest gainer in the business world when Donald Trump won a decisive mandate in the 2024 US Presidential elections. In fact, it needs no ‘analysis’ to underline the gains Musk made after the results showed Trump securing his place as the 47th President of the US.
Musk has always been very vocal about his support for the Republican leader and donated somewhere between USD 100 million to USD 260 million to the Trump campaign. Now, he has been named the co-head of an advisory group Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) along with Vivek Ramaswamy.
As for his wealth, his fortune saw a rise of 25 per cent in November alone and crossed USD 300 billion for the first time in two years. Forbes estimates that his net worth increased by USD 66 billion between 1 November and 1 December. This is the clearest indicator of the significance of Trump’s victory on Musk’s fortune.
Musk was the world’s richest person in 2023 and will end 2024 as the richest of all billionaires. He had lost his spot briefly between January and May 2024, but xAI’s valuation over the next few months helped him back up. The South African-origin tech genius owns 54 per cent of the USD 50 billion company, according to Forbes. His primary source of wealth is Tesla, in which he holds a 13 per cent stake. Apart from Tesla and xAI, the major companies owned by Musk include SpaceX, The Boring Company, Tesla Energy and Neuralink.
As of 9 December 2024, he had a net worth of USD 355 billion. By 11 December, just about two days later, he became the first person in history to clock a net worth of USD 400 billion largely due to a jump in SpaceX’s valuation to around USD 350 billion. To put this into perspective, Musk’s net worth is more than the nominal GDPs of several Asian and European economic powerhouses and oil-rich Gulf countries, including Malaysia, Hong Kong, Denmark, Finland, Qatar and Kuwait.
Source: www.lifestyleasia.com
Mother’s love is so strong that cannot be quantified with anything, this is what was displayed during the final joining home of Mrs. Olufunmilayo Christiana Latunji, mother of Ex-Zenith General Manager, Ms Bukky Latunji.
Mrs. Funmilayo Latunji, who slept in the Lord on Sunday, October 13, 2024, at the age of 83.
The joining home for Mama Latuji began on Wednesday, November, 27th with Service of song, at the Holy Trinity Anglican Church, Ikate, Surulere, Lagos. Followed by Wake-keep on December 4th, at the Prestigious Eko Club, Blessing Hall, Surulere, the Lying-in-State was held at the Holy Trinity Anglican Church, Ikate, thereafter the funeral service was held at the same Church.
After the service, Mama’s body was laid to rest at Ikoyi Private Vaults, Ikoyi, Lagos.
The guests were treated to a sumptuous meal at the prestigious The Jewel Aeida Place on Hakeem Dickson Road, Lekki Lagos. Demola Olota was on the band-stand and thrilled the guests with lovely melodies.
Among the powerful guests are, Founded, Tastee Fried Chicken, Mrs. Olayinka Pamela Adedayo; Philanthropist, Apostle Folorunsho Alakija; Founder of Love of Christ Generation Church, Rev. Esther Ajayi; Senator Olanrewaju Ganiu Solomon; Ace Comedian, Ali Baba; Mrs Adeola Azeez and host of others.
Mama Latunji was survived by Children, Grandchildren, Brothers; and Sisters, she was known for her gentleness, love, caring, and wisdom. She was so respected for her numerous contributions to the families of Latunji and Majekodunmi, also the Church of God.
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