Is President John Dramani Mahama really the fourth richest man in Ghana? If so, would that not make him one of the richest leaders on the African continent with a speculated $900 million dollars net worth?
Assuming any of the above is true, why then would his name not be in the current list of richest African leaders?
Controversy brewed when a list of 20 richest Ghanaians, believed to have been released by Forbes Ghana, hit the media and named President John Dramani Mahama the fourth richest son of the land.
In the list, President Mahama was believed to be worth $900 million dollars, a net worth that earned him the 4th richest man in Ghana title.
The news spurred a lot of debate in the media, with some officials, who were named in the supposed list, openly denying claims by the supposed Forbes Ghana publication.
Despite these claims by the Forbes Ghana list, a 2014 list of richest African leaders, compiled by richestlifestyle.com, has named 9 African leaders who are considered the richest. This time, president Mahama�s name was not in the list.
This has generated confusion online as many are wondering which of the two publications to believe since both publications are said to be sourced from Forbes.
According to the latest publication by the American based website, Jose Eduardo dos Santos of Angola topped the list of richest African leaders with a net worth of $20 Billion while Mohammed VI of Morocco placed 2nd with a net worth of $2.5 Billion.
Third richest was Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equitorial Guinea with $600 Million and Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya took the fourth place with a net worth of $500 Million.
Others included Paul Biya (Cameroon) 5th with $200 Million, King Mswati III (Swaziland) 7th �$100 Million, Idriss Deby (Chad) 8th � $50 Million while Zimbabwe�s Robert Mugabe placed 9th with an estimated net worth of around $10 million dollars.
Going by the above net worth estimates, a $900 million net worth (as stated by the Forbes Ghana list) estimate for president Mahama would have placed him $300 million dollars ahead of Equitorial Guinea�s Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo to take third place and $890 million dollars ahead of Zimbabwe�s Robert Mugabe.
When the supposed Forbes Ghana list went viral, president Mahama was considered by many Ghanaians to, indeed, be a wealthy African president.
However, with the recent online publication of Africa�s 9 richest presidents, doubts and confusion has hit once again as to the true net worth of President Mahama, especially in the face of current economic challenges facing the country.
Speculations went rife some months ago over the supposed wealth of Ghana�s president as he was linked to the ownership of some businesses both in and outside Ghana.
This was at a time when Ghana was facing serious economic crisis with a downward decline of the cedi against the dollar and other foreign exchange currencies.
Though many government officials, and indeed President Mahama, had denied any such wealth, unanswered questions would still remain in the minds of Ghanaians as to the truth behind the true net worth of President Mahama and how such wealth (if any truly exists) was acquired.
In a related story, president of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan, who was named the 6th richest African leader by the same online publication has had his name and biography pulled down from the list, leaving the 6th position blank.
President Jonathan whose net worth was estimated to be around $100 million dollars, making him the 6th richest African leader, publicly denied the contents of the publication and threatened to sue the publishers; a probable reason his data has been pulled from the publication, leaving the sixth position vacant.
Though some have wondered the credibility of the information on the website, richestlifestyle.com has revealed that the list was compiled based on information from Forbes.com, ForeignPolicy.com, CelebrityNetWorth.com and Cabinda.net.
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