According to Forbes, Africa’s 18 Billionaires are worth an estimated $84.9 with Egypt and South Africa leading the way with five billionaires each followed by Nigeria with three billionaires. Forbes used stock prices and currency exchange rates from January 19, 2022, to measure the net worths of the richest men in the continent.
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Now here comes the top ten richest people in Africa in 2022 and how they made their wealth.
1. Aliko Dangote: For the 11th year in a row, Nigeria’s Business Mogul, Aliko Dangote tops the list as the richest man in Africa, with an estimated net worth of $13.9 billion. He is also the richest black man on earth and the 75th richest person in the world.
Born into a wealthy Hausa family in Kano state, North-West Nigeria on the 10th of April, 1957, Dangote is the great-grandson of Alhassan Dantata, the richest West African at the time of his death in 1955.
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His passion for business motivated him to obtain a loan facility of $500,000 from his uncle to begin trade in commodities such as cement, rice and sugar. He subsequently established the Dangote Group in 1977 and relocated to Lagos the same year to expand the company.
Today, Dangote Group is one of the largest conglomerates in Africa operating in several countries on the continent with subsidiaries such as Dangote Cement, Dangote flour, Dangote Sugar, Dangote Fertilizer, and Dangote Refinery among others.
Dangote Cement Company, Africa’s largest cement producer has the capacity of producing 48.6 million metric tons annually with operations in 10 countries across the continent. Dangote also makes lots of fortune from the sale of sugar, flour, salt and fertilizer.
The business tycoon is expected to see an increase in net worth thanks to the Dangote Refinery which is near completion at the Lekki Free Trade Zone of Lagos. 650,000 barrels of oil are expected to be produced daily by the refinery which is anticipated to be one of the largest oil refineries once complete.
2. Johann Rupert: With an estimated net worth of $11 billion, South African Billionaire, Johann Rupert is the second richest man in the continent.
The 72-year-old is the chairman of Swiss-based luxury goods company Compagnie Financiere Richemont which he founded in 1988. Through its various subsidiaries, Richemont produces and sells jewellery, watches, leather goods, clothing, and accessories. As of 2017, Richemont best known for brands Cartier and Montblanc was the third-largest luxury goods company in the world.
Johann Rupert also owns 7% of diversified investment firm Remgro, which he chairs, as well as 25% of Reinet, an investment holding company based in Luxembourg.
3. Nicky Oppenheimer: South African, Nicky Oppenheimer who formally ran Diamond mining firm, DeBeers, before selling it to Anglo-American a decade ago ranks the third richest man in Africa with an estimated net worth of $ 8.7 billion.
The 77-year-old amassed his wealth from trading in diamonds through DeBeers, a Diamond trading company inherited from his father many years ago.
As heir to the DeBeers diamond fortune, Nicky Oppenheimer sold his 40% of the firm to mining group Anglo American for $5.1 billion in cash in 2012. For 85 years until 2012, the Oppenheimer family occupied a controlling spot in the world’s diamond trade.
In 2014, Oppenheimer started Fireblade Aviation in Johannesburg, which operates chartered flights. He owns at least 720 square miles of conservation land across South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe.
4. Nassef Sawiris: Fourth on our list is 61-year-old Egyptian investor, Nassef Sawiris said to be worth $8.6 billion.
Sawiris joined the Orascom group in 1982 and oversaw the construction activities of Orascom Construction following the transfer of management control from his father in 1995. He later became CEO of Orascom Construction Industries following the company’s incorporation in 1998.
In January 2013, Sawiris became CEO of OCI, one of the world’s largest nitrogen fertilizer producers, with plants in Texas and Iowa and in December 2020, he acquired a 5% stake in New York-listed firm Madison Square Garden Sports, owner of the NBA Knicks and the NHL Rangers teams.
The Egyptian tycoon has stakes in cement giant Lafarge Holcim and Adidas and teamed up with Fortress Investment Group’s Wes Edens to purchase the Premier League’s Aston Villa Football Club.
5. Abdulsamad Rabiu: The fifth richest man in the continent is Nigeria’s Abdulsamad Rabiu, founder of BUA Group, a conglomerate active in cement production, sugar refining and real estate. The 62-year-old is worth an estimated $ 7 billion.
In 1988, Abdulsamad, son of foremost industrialist Isyaku Rabiu, established BUA International Limited for the sole purpose of commodity trading. The company imported rice, edible oil, flour, iron and steel.
A few years later, BUA acquired Nigerian Oil Mills Limited, the largest edible oil processing company in Nigeria. In 2005 BUA started two flour-milling plants, in Lagos and Kano. By 2008, BUA had broken an eight-year monopoly in the Nigerian sugar industry by commissioning the second-largest sugar refinery in sub-Saharan Africa.
In January 2020, Abdulsamad merged his privately-owned Obu Cement company with a publicly listed cement company in Northern Nigeria to form BUA Cement Plc. BUA owns a $900 million cement plant in Edo State of Nigeria.
6. Mike Adenuga: Following closely with an estimated net worth of $ 6.7 billion is another Nigerian business mogul, Mike Adenuga who built his fortune in telecom and oil production.
Adenuga’s mobile phone network, Globacom, is the third largest operator in Nigeria, with over 55 million subscribers while his oil exploration outfit, Conoil Producing, operates 6 oil blocks in the Niger Delta region.
The 69-year-old made his first million at age 26 selling lace and distributing soft drinks.
7. Issad Rebrab: Algerian business magnate, Issad Rebrab is the seventh richest man in the continent with an estimated net worth of $5.1 billion.
The 79-year-old billionaire is the founder and CEO of Cevital, Algeria’s biggest privately-held company. The company owns one of the largest sugar refineries in the world, with capacity to produce 2 million tons a year.
Cevital also owns companies in Europe including French home appliances maker Groupe Brandt, an Italian steel mill and a German water purification company.
8. Naguib Sawiris: With an estimated net worth of $ 3.4 billion, Egyptian Naguib Sawiris makes the list as the eighth richest man on the continent. His brothers Nassef and Samih are also a billionaire.
Naguib built a fortune in telecom, selling Orascom Telecom in 2011 to Russian telecom firm VimpelCom now Veon in a multibillion-dollar transaction.
He is the chairman of Orascom TMT Investments, which has stakes in an asset manager in Egypt and Italian internet company Italiaonline, among others. Through his Media Globe Holdings, Sawiris owns 88% of pan-European pay TV and video news network Euronews.
The 68-year-old businessman also owns a luxury resort called Silversands on the Caribbean island of Grenada.
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9. Patrice Motsepe: Current Chairman of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) Patrice Motsepe is the 9th richest man in the continent with an estimated net worth of $3.1 billion. The 60-year-old South African holds the record as the first black African to become a billionaire in 2008.
Motsepe, who is the chairman of African Rainbow Minerals, a diversified mining and minerals company operating in South Africa and Malaysia made his wealth from the mining sector, a business he ventured into in 1994. South Africa
In 2016, he launched a private equity firm, African Rainbow Capital, focused on investing in Africa. Motsepe also has a stake in Sanlam, a listed financial services firm, and is the president and owner of the Mamelodi Sundowns Football Club.
10. Koos Bekker: South African media mogul, Koss Bekker is the joint 10th richest man in Africa with an estimated net worth of $2.7 billion alongside Zimbabwean telecom magnate, Strive Masiyiwa.
Bekker is the chairman of media group Naspers, a company that operates in 130 countries listed on the London Stock Exchange and Johannesburg Stock Exchange with the largest market capitalization of any media company outside the US, China and India.
The 70-year-old is reputed for transforming Naspers into an e-commerce investor and cable TV powerhouse. He led the company to pay a reported $34 million for a third of Chinese Internet firm Tencent Holdings in 2001, one of the greatest venture investments ever.
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And that’s our list of the ten richest men in Africa and how they made their fortune. If you enjoyed this video, please click the like button and don’t forget to subscribe and share with your friends. Thanks for watching.
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