Helped by COVID-19: How the World’s Richest Made Over $6 Trillion in 2021

• The wealthiest in the world grew their wealth during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to reports
• The likes of Dangote, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Warren Buffet all grew their wealth to make the top 1 per cent earn about $6.4 trillion in 2021
• The report also says that most of their wealth came from real estate, stocks and others as the bottom 90 per cent also saw their income grow slightly

While the COVID-19 pandemic brought pain and misery to many, others made fortunes as the pandemic raged and ravaged economies around the world.

The world’s richest of the rich, however, through the soaring cost of stocks, added huge sums to their net worth.

Dangote unseats Russian oligarchs

Nigeria and Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote Aliko Dangote, is now richer than nearly all Russian Billionaires except four of them.

According to Bloomberg Billionaires Index, the wealthiest black man in the world now has an estimated net worth of $20 billion after making over $915 million(N380.38bn) in three months.

America's wealthiest see their riches surge

A CNBC report says that in the US, the wealth of America’s richest people like Warren Buffet and Jeff Bezos grew by a whopping $6.4 trillion in 2021, according to the US Federal Reserve.

The combined wealth of the 1 per cent got to $45.9 trillion at the end of the last quarter of 2021, the report by the Federal Reserve says, adding that America’s household wealth also increased by more than $12 trillion during the pandemic.

The report said the top 1 per cent owned a record 32.3 per cent of America’s wealth as of the end of 2021, according to available data. However, the bottom 90 per cent in America declined from 30.5 per cent to 30.2 per cent.

The report also said that the growing wealth of the top 1 per cent has stopped or reduced slightly in 2022 due to declining stocks.

The driving force for America’s richest in 2021 were stocks and private businesses. About 4.3 trillion of the total revenues for the 1 per cent in 2021 came from equities of corporate companies and mutual funds.

The 10 per cent well-off held 89 per cent of individually owned corporate equities and mutual fund shares last year.

A Gallup poll in 2021 discovered that 56 per cent of Americans owns at least some stock, a little above the average of 55 per cent in 2019 and 2020 but still down from 62 per cent high above the 2oo8 financial crisis.

More wealth inequality

The richest 1 per cent have benefited from skyrocketing real-estate values. Their holdings in real estate went up slightly above $1 trillion during the pandemic to reach $5.27 trillion.

They owned 14 per cent of America’s real estate at the end of 2021, down from 14.5 per cent prior to the pandemic at the end of 2019.

The bottom 90 per cent of Americans added $2.89 trillion to their wealth in 2021 from real estate.

Dangote jumps 29 places in world rich List, now 2x richer, 150 places above closest rival in Africa

Legit.ng reported Africa's richest man and president of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, as of Wednesday, 9th March 2022 is now the 71st richest person in the world as against his previous ranking of 100th he opened the year 2022.

His wealth is at $20.1 billion, having amassed $914 million(N380bn), according to Bloomberg's billionaires' index.

South African billionaire Johann Rupert sits at 221 positions in the billionaire list with a net wealth of $9 billion two times lesser than Dangote's.

Source: Legit.ng