Top 6 Richest Men In Africa

The coronavirus pandemic and ensuing lockdown wreaked havoc on Africa's economy and saw a lot of people lose their sources of income. Others, however, did just fine and even managed to perform even better regardless of the pandemic. One of them is a Nigerian businessman and CEO of the BUA Group, Abdulsamad Rabiu, whose wealth jumped by a staggering 77 percent, amounting to about $5.5 billion. This happened as shares of his company BUA Cement doubled in value on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, less than a year after it was listed in January 2020.

Africa currently records 18 billionaires who have a combined fortune of $73.8 billion, about $4 million more than last year's $73.4 billion. 

Below is a list of the wealthiest people in Africa today, and how much they're worth.

Aliko Dangote

Nigerian businessman, Aliko Dangote holds the title of the richest person in Africa with a net worth of over $12.1 billion. Being the great-grandson of Alhaji Alhassan Dantata, one of the most successful businessmen on the continent in his time, Aliko Dangote was exposed to the business at quite an early age. He shared how he started trading sweets as far back as primary school using his pocket money.

After graduating from university in 1977, Dangote's uncle gave him a loan to start up a business, and Aliko ventured into the importation world. He began importing commodities like rice and sugar from Thailand and Brazil which he proceeded to resell to people in his village in smaller quantities. This business grew so lucrative to the point he started to realize a daily net profit of $10,000, and in less than three months, he made enough money to repay the loan.

With time, Aliko Dangote came to the realization he was losing money importing, and in 1997, he built his production plant. In that same year, he was awarded a cement company by his state, a company he expanded in 2005 by constructing the biggest manufacturing plant in the country with help of loans from the International Finance Organization.

This cement company has grown to become his most valuable asset. It is the biggest cement company in sub-Saharan Africa with a market cap. of over $3.6 billion.

All of Aliko Dangote's businesses are operated under the Dangote Group, which is the largest conglomerate in West Africa and one of the largest in Africa. He deals in sugar, cement, and petroleum products.

Nassef Sawiris

The youngest son of the popular Sawiris family in Egypt is the second-richest person in Africa with a net worth of $8.5 billion. Nassef comes from one of the wealthiest families in Egypt, so his fortune doesn't come as a surprise. 

In 1982, he joined the family company, Orascom group, where he became the CEO of the construction subsidiary, Orascom Construction Industries; one of the biggest building and construction companies in Egypt. He is an astute businessman and owns stakes in several companies including West-African cement company Lafarge Holding and sports apparel Adidas. He also has served on the board of directors of the Cairo and Alexandria Stock Exchanges(2004-2007), as well as the Dubai International Financial Exchange (DIFX) for two years(2008-2010).

In 2015, Nassef divided Orascom Construction Industries into two separate entities: OCI and Orascom Construction. OCI is one of the world’s largest nitrogen fertilizer producers, with plants in Texas and Iowa. He became chairman of English football club Aston Villa in 2018 replacing Tony Xia, as NSWE, a company he jointly owns purchased 55 percent of the club. A year later,NSWE snagged the remaining 45 percent shares from Tony Xia, giving it full control.

In October of 2020, Nassef Sawiri founded a new company, Avanti Acquisition Corp, a Special-purpose acquisition company. He also purchased a 5 percent stake in Madison Square Garden Sports, owner of NHL Rangers and NBA Knicks.

Nicky Oppenheimer 

The Second-richest man in South Africa, Nicki Oppenheimer is the third-richest person in Africa with a net worth of $8 billion. Like most billionaires, he comes from a family of wealthy people. Nicky, whose family had a stake in De Beers, the world's largest diamond company at the time, sold off the 40 percent stake in 2012. Anglo American, a mining company, purchased the stake for about $5.2 billion and paid in cash.

He joined Anglo American in 1968, and after six years, was appointed director in 1974. He then became a deputy chairman in 1983 until his resignation in 2001 where he remained a non-executive director until 2011.

In 1985, Nicky was appointed Chairman of the Diamond Trading Company from the position of Deputy-Chairman. He was also promoted to Chairman of De Beers group in 1998 after being Deputy-Chairman for 13 years. He held the position of Chairman until he sold the family stake in 2012, bringing an end to the family's 85 years of dominance in the world's diamond trade.

Nicky and his son Jonathan founded Fireblade Aviation in 2014, a world-class aviation service with a fleet of three airplanes and two helicopters and built for over $10 million. He also maintains private equity investments on different continents.

Johannes Rupert

Chairman of Swiss luxury company Compagnie Financiere, owners of Cartier and Montblanc, Johannes Rupert is not new to luxury. Born in June 1950 to billionaire industrialist and founder of the Rembrandt company, Anton Rupert, Johannes was determined to make it on his own - and he has, judging from his $7.7 billion net-worth.

After college in New York, Ruppert returned to South Africa and formed the Merchant Bank, which later merged with Rand Consolidated Investments.

He eventually joined his father's company Rembrandt, where he diversified from only tobacco into wine, spirits, banking, and even mining. As soon as he gained full control of the company in the late 1980s, he turned the company's foreign assets into its own company, which is known as the Financiere Richemont, based in Switzerland.

In 2007, Rupert went into a 50/50 joint venture with Ralph Lauren to form the Ralph Lauren Watch and Jewelry Company.

Mike Adenuga

Mike Adenuga is a popular name in Nigeria, and with good reason. The seasoned entrepreneur was born to school teacher Oloye Adeniyi and businesswoman Omoba Oyindamola. Mike grew up to be quite industrious, and by the age of 26, he already became a millionaire from his lace and soft drinks distribution business. Now, however, he has a net worth of $6.1 billion.

During Ibrahim Babangida's regime as head of state, the oil minister, Professor Jubril Aminu, made it possible for individuals to venture into oil exploitation and exploration, and so Mike Adenuga applied for a drilling license in 1990. In 1991, he started his oil company and struck oil in Ondo state. The company, Conoil, now has six oil blocks in the Niger Delta.

Mike Adenuga also applied for a GSM license in 1999, following the new popularity of mobile phones. That year, he founded Globacom, one of the largest telecom operators in the country with presence in other countries like Ghana, Ivory Coast, and the Benin Republic. With about 55 million active subscribers, Globacom has the third-highest number of users in Nigeria, following MTN and Etisalat.

Abdulsamad Rabiu

AbdulSamad Rabiu, the Nigerian businessman, was born in 1960 to Khalifah Rabiu, one of Nigeria's foremost industrialists from the 1970s to 1980s. In 1988, Abdulsamad established his company BUA International Limited to engage in commodity trading, like the importation of rice, cooking oil, floor, etc, until 1990 when the government gave the company a contract to supply raw materials for the Delta Steel Company in exchange for finished products. This was a huge boost for the company as it expanded beyond commodities like flour and rice into steel, importation of iron ore, and the construction of rolling mills in the country.

After purchasing Nigerian Oil Mills Limited, which was the biggest edible oil processing company at the time in Nigeria, BUA opened two flour-milling plants in Lagos and Kano in 2005. He didn't stop there, three years later, his company commissioned the second largest sugar refinery in sub-Saharan Africa, consolidating itself in the Nigerian market and breaking Dangote's eight years of monopoly in the Nigerian market. The company acquired a major stake in the Cement Company of Northern Nigeria in 2009 and constructed a cement plant in Edo State. It cost him $900 million to build. Abdulsamad is the biggest shareholder of the company, owning 98.5 percent of shares.

His wealth went up to $5.5 billion from $3.1 billion last year as the share price of his cement company skyrocketed. He is now the third richest man in Nigeria and the sixth richest on the continent.