Three Nigerians have made Forbes’ list of the most powerful, impactful, and wealthiest Black Americans in 2024.
The Nigerians on the list are Wemimo Abbey, Tope Awotona, and Adebayo Ogunlesi, all based in the United States.
Abbey, 32, is the co-founder and co-CEO of Esusu, a New York-based fintech startup that helps renters build their credit histories and scores by reporting rent payments to credit bureaus. According to Forbes, over 20,000 properties currently offer Esusu’s service, with 1.8 million Americans using it to record rent payments. In early 2022, Esusu raised $130 million in funding at a $1 billion valuation. Abbey, who grew up in Lagos, Nigeria, previously worked as a mergers and acquisitions consultant at PWC and co-founded a non-profit and a data analytics startup. It’s reported that his Nigerian mother sold her wedding ring to fund his travel and education in the US.
Awotona, 43, is the founder and CEO of Calendly, a scheduling software startup that was valued at $3 billion in 2021. Born in Lagos, Awotona moved to Atlanta at 15 and later studied business and management information at the University of Georgia. After several failed startups and working as a salesman, Awotona cashed in his 401(k) in 2013 to launch Calendly, frustrated by the number of emails needed to schedule meetings. After bootstrapping the company, he raised $350 million in 2021 to scale Calendly. Today, he is worth an estimated $1.4 billion.
Adebayo Ogunlesi, 70, is the chairman and co-founder of Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), a New York-based private equity firm. In October, GIP was acquired by BlackRock for $12.5 billion, with Ogunlesi remaining as chairman and CEO. Forbes estimates Ogunlesi’s net worth at $1.7 billion. Ogunlesi earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Oxford, a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School, and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He worked as an attorney for Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall in the early 1980s and later spent over 20 years as an investment banker at Credit Suisse before co-founding GIP in 2006.
Other notable names on the list include Dr. Dre, LeBron James, Michael Jordan, Beyoncé, Jay-Z, and Gary Linnen, among others.
