Popular Billionaire Makes N658b in 1 Day, Equivalent to Debt of All Nigerian States

The 36 states of Nigeria have an estimated total debt, including unpaid salaries, of N658 billion, which is about $3.3 billion. The figure is apparently a huge burden to a country like Nigeria, weighed down by revenue shortfalls, under-develpment and leakages.

But to Spanish billionaire, Amancio Ortega, Europe’s richest man and second richest man in the world, it is all in a day’s job, or rather, just part of the day’s takings.

On Monday, the billionaire added $3.3 billion to his fortune, as shares in Inditex, owner of Zara, the world’s largest clothing retailer, rose 3.9 percent.

The Spanish billionaire’s gain was $500 million more than the combined increase recorded by everyone else among the world’s 10 richest people tracked by the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The rise caps a surging performance for Ortega in the first half of this year.

His fortune has risen by $11billion to $72billion, an 18 percent rise, compared to the slight decline in the fortunes of Bill Gates, the world’s richest man, and Warren Buffett, the third-wealthiest person on earth.

A Bloomberg report noted that while Ortega still trails Gates’s $86 billion net worth, his fortune has increased 80 per cent in the past three years, double the growth rate of the Microsoft co-founder.