President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has been named the wealthiest person in Africa for the ninth year in a row with an estimated net worth of $10.1billion.
According to Forbes’ latest ranking with focus on business, investment, technology, entrepreneurship and leadership, Dangote’s present worth is down from his estimate of $10.3 billion a year ago; largely due to a slightly lower stock price for his flagship company, Dangote Cement.
South Africa and Egypt dominate not only the top 10 richest people in Africa list, but in the rankings overall with five billionaires each. Nigeria comes second with four billionaires, including Dangote. Dangote founded and chairs Dangote Cement, the continent’s largest cement producer. He owns nearly 85 per cent of publicly-traded Dangote Cement through a holding company.
Dangote Cement produces 45.6 million metric tonnes annually and has operations in 10 countries across Africa. Dangote also owns stakes in publicly-traded salt, sugar and flour manufacturing companies. Dangote Refinery in Lagos has been under construction for three years and is expected to be one of the world’s largest oil refineries once completed.
Dangote does charity through the Aliko Dangote Foundation which has the objective of reducing the number of lives lost to malnutrition and disease as well as combating Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) in children.
Just two of the 20 billionaires are women: Isabel dos Santos, the eldest daughter of Angola’s former president, Jose Eduardo dos Santos; and Folorunsho Alakija of Nigeria. Dos Santos’ fortune has declined to an estimated $2.2 billion, down $100 million from a year ago. Nassef Sawiris of Egypt is the new number two richest in Africa, with a net worth of $8 billion, up from $6.3 billion last year.
Number three on the list is Nigeria’s Mike Adenuga, worth $7.7 billion. Sharing the third position with Mike Adenuga with $7.7billion worth is a South African, Nicky Oppenheimer. Johann Rupert is the fifth richest African. He is the chairman of Swiss luxury goods firm Compagnie Financiere Richemont.
Nigeria’s Abdulsamad Rabiu is in number eight position among the top 20 African billionaires. Rabiu is the founder of BUA Group, a Nigerian conglomerate active in cement production, sugar refining and real estate. Closing the 20 top African billionaire bracket is Alakija with a net worth of $1billion.
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