Dangote, Adenuga, Rabiu Makes Africa’s Top 10 Billionaires List
Aliko Dangote of Nigeria is Africa’s richest person and has maintained this position for straight 10 years, according to the 2021 Forbes’ Africa Billionaires List released on Friday.
Also, Mike Adenuga of Globacom, and Abdulsamad Rabiu of BUA Group, both Nigerians, made it to the list as the 5th and 6th richest persons in Africa respectively.
Forbes stated that in Africa, as elsewhere in the world, the wealthiest came through the pandemic just fine.
It stated that the continent’s 18 billionaires were worth an average $4.1bn, 12 percent more than a year ago, driven in part by Nigeria’s surging stock market.
According to Forbes report; “For the tenth year in a row, Aliko Dangote of Nigeria is the continent’s richest person, worth $12.1bn, up by $2bn from last year’s list, thanks to a roughly 30 per cent rise in the share price of Dangote Cement, by far his most valuable asset.”
The list named the second richest person in Africa as Nassef Sawiris of Egypt, whose largest asset was a nearly six percent stake in sportswear maker Adidas.
At number three was Nicky Oppenheimer of South Africa, who inherited a stake in diamond firm DeBeers and ran the company until 2012, when he sold his family’s 40 percent stake in DeBeers to mining giant AngloAmerican for $5.1bn.
It said the biggest gainer this year was another Nigerian cement tycoon, Rabiu.
“Remarkably, shares of his BUA Cement Plc, which listed on the Nigeria Stock Exchange in January 2020, have doubled in value in the past year,” the report stated.
South Africa and Egypt each had five billionaires, followed by Nigeria with three and Morocco with two.
Altogether they were worth $73.8bn, slightly more than the $73.4bn aggregate worth of the 20 billionaires on last year’s list of Africa’s richest people.
