Richest people in Africa, Glass Suite lists tracks the wealth of African billionaires who reside in Africa or have their primary business here, the top 10 billionaires from Africa hail from different countries: South Africa, Egypt, and Nigeria.
Richest People In Africa/African Billionaires
Aliko Dangote
Aliko Dangote, Net worth estimate: $12.6 billion.
Africa’s richest man, founded and chairs Dangote Cement, the continent’s largest cement producer, the Richest people in Africa, the Nigeria billionaire’s source of wealth: cement, sugar, Self-Made.
He owns 85% of publicly traded Dangote Cement through a holding company. Dangote Cement produces 45.6 million metric tons annually and has operations in 10 countries across Africa.
Dangote also owns stakes in publicly traded salt and sugar manufacturing companies.
Nassef Sawiris
Nassef Sawiris, Net worth estimate: $8.2 billion.
Richest People in Africa Nassef is an investor and a scion of Egypt’s wealthiest family. His most valuable asset is a nearly 6% stake in sportswear maker Adidas.
The Egyptian billionaire Source of wealth: Construction and Investments.
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.
He runs OCI, one of the world’s largest nitrogen fertilizer producers, with plants in Texas and Iowa, it trades on the Euronext Amsterdam exchange.
His holdings include stakes in cement giant Lafarge Holcim and Adidas; he sits on the supervisory board of Adidas.
Nicky Oppenheimer
Nicky Oppenheimer, Net worth estimate: $7.9 billion.
Richest People in Africa Nicky, heir to his family’s fortune, sold his 40% stake in diamond firm DeBeers to mining group Anglo American for $5.1 billion in cash in 2012.
The South African billionaire’s Source of wealth is diamond, he owns at least 720 square miles of conservation land across South Africa, Botswana, and Zimbabwe.
He was the third generation of his family to run DeBeers and took the company private in 2001. For 85 years until 2012, the Oppenheimer family occupied a controlling spot in the world’s diamond trade.
Johann Rupert
Johann Rupert, Net worth: $7.2 billion.
Richest People in Africa Johann is the chairman of the Swiss luxury goods firm Compagnie Financiere Richemont. The company is best known for the brands Cartier and Montblanc.
It was formed in 1998 through a spinoff of assets owned by Rembrandt Group Limited which his father Anton formed in the 1940s.
The South African billionaire’s Source of wealth is Luxury goods. He owns a 7% stake in diversified investment firm Remgro, which he chairs, as well as 25% of Reinet, an investment holding.
Based in Luxembourg. In recent years, Rupert has been a vocal opponent of plans to allow fracking in the Karoo, a region of South Africa where he owns the land.
Mike Adenuga
Mike Adenuga, Net worth estimate: $6.3 billion.
The richest people in Africa, Nigeria’s second richest man, built his fortune in telecom and oil production. His mobile phone network, Globacom, is the third-largest operator in Nigeria, with 55 million subscribers.
Mike Adenuga Source of wealth: Telecom, Oil, and Self-made. His oil exploration outfit, Conoil Producing, operates 6 oil blocks in the Niger Delta.
Adenuga got an MBA at Pace University in New York, supporting himself as a student by working as a taxi driver. He made his first million at age 26 selling lace and distributing soft drinks.
Abdulsamad Rabiu
Abdulsamad Rabiu, New worth estimate: $5.2 billion.
Richest People in Africa Rabiu is the founder of BUA Group, a Nigerian conglomerate active in cement production, sugar refining, and real estate.
In early January 2020, Rabiu merged his privately owned Obu Cement Company with the listed firm Cement Co. of Northern Nigeria, which he controlled.
The Nigeria billionaire’s source of wealth: Cement, Real estate, and Sugar. The combined firm, called BUA Cement Plc, trades on the Nigerian stock exchange; Rabiu owns 98.5% of it.
Issad Rebrab
Issad Rebrab, Net worth estimate: $4.8 billion.
Richest People in Africa Issad is the founder and CEO of Cevital, Algeria’s biggest privately-held company.
Cevital owns one of the largest sugar refineries in the world, with the capacity to produce 2 million tons a year.
The Algeria billionaire Source of wealth: Food and self-made, Cevital owns European companies, including French home appliances maker Groupe Brandt, an Italian steel mill, and a German water purification company. After serving 8 months in jail on charges of corruption, Rebrab was released on January 1, 2020.
Naguib Sawiris
Naguib Sawiris’s Net worth estimate: $3.2 billion.
Richest People in Africa Naguib is a scion of Egypt’s wealthiest family. His brother Nassef is also a billionaire.
He built a fortune in telecom, selling Orascom Telecom in 2011 to Russian telecom firm VimpelCom in a multibillion-dollar transaction. The Egyptian billionaire Source of wealth: Telecom.
He is the chairman of Orascom TMT Investments, which has stakes in an asset manager in Egypt and Italian internet company Italia-online, among others.
Through his Media Globe Holdings, Sawiris owns 88% of the Pan-European pay-TV and video news network Euronews. He also developed a luxury resort called Silversands on the Caribbean island of Grenada.
Patrice Motsepe
Patrice Motsepe, Net worth estimate: $3 billion.
Richest People in Africa Patrice Motsepe the founder and chairman of African Rainbow Minerals, became a billionaire in 2008 the first black African on the Forbes list.
In 2016, he launched a new private equity firm, African Rainbow Capital, focused on investing in Africa. The South African billionaire source of wealth: Mining and Self-made.
Motsepe also has a stake in Sanlam, a listed financial services firm, and is the president and owner of the Mamelodi Sundowns Football Club.
In 1994, he became the first black partner at law firm Bowman Gilfillan in Johannesburg and then started a mining service contracting business. In 1997, he bought low-producing gold mine shafts and later turned them profitable.
Koos Bekker
Koos Bekker, Net worth estimate: $2.8 billion.
Richest People in Africa Bekker is ranked for transforming South African newspaper publisher Naspers into an eCommerce investor and cable TV powerhouse.
He led Naspers to invest in the Chinese Internet and media firm Tencent in 2001 by far the most profitable of the bets he made on companies elsewhere.
The South African billionaire’s source of wealth: media, investments, and Self-Made.
In 2019, Naspers put some assets into two publicly traded companies, entertainment firm MultiChoice Group and Prosus,
which contains Tencent’s stake which sold a 2% stake in Tencent in March 2018, its first time reducing its holding, but stated at the time it would not sell again for 3 years as Forbes has more details.