The Chairman, Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote has been named the wealthiest person in Africa for the ninth consecutive year.
However, the latest ranking of the world’s billionaires by Forbes estimated that his net worth dropped by $200m from $10.3bn to $10.1bn in one year.
The American media company attributed this to the slightly lower stock price for Dangote Cement.
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s Mike Adenuga with investments in the mobile phone network, Globacom, Conoil and real estate, was named as number three in Africa on the Forbes billionaire list and was valued at $7.7bn.
Adenuga shared the third position with a South African, Nicky Oppenheimer.
The report stated that only eight countries have billionaires with South Africa and Egypt dominating 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 Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote.
Nigeria’s Abdulsamad Rabiu, with 98.5 per cent stakes in BUA Cement Plc, is in number eight position among the top 20 African billionaires.
In early January 2020, Rabiu merged his privately-owned Obu Cement company with listed first, Cement Company of Northern Nigeria, which he controlled.
Closing the 20 top African billionaire list is the Vice Chair of Nigeria’s Famfa Oil Folorunso Alakija, with a net worth of $1bn.
According to Forbes, the second woman on the top 20 billionaire’s list is the eldest daughter of Angola’s former president, Isabel dos Santos, whose fortune declined to an estimated $2.2bn, by $100m from a year ago.
The Forbes report stated that the fortune of Strive Masiyiwa of Zimbabwe dropped by $1.2bn to $1.1bn in 2019, and ranked the 19th richest man, due to the introduction of a new (weaker) currency in the country, affecting his stakes in Econet Wireless, Zimbabwe and Cassava Smartech in dollar terms.
Nassef Sawiris of Egypt, who has stakes in a shoemaking company, Adidas, and a fertilizer company, OCI N.V, merged as the new number two richest man on Forbes list with assets valued at $8bn.
In 2019, Forbes said Sawiris and a United States investor, Wes Edens, purchased the remaining stake they didn’t own in the United Kingdom Premier League team, Aston Villa Football Club.
The report said altogether, Africa’s billionaires are richer than a year ago as the continent’s 20 billionaires are worth a combined $73.4bn, up from $68.7bn a year ago.
Explaining the methodology used in the ranking, Forbes Africa said “Our list tracks the wealth of African billionaires who reside in Africa or have their primary businesses there… We calculated net worth using stock prices and currency exchange rates from the close of business on Friday, January 10, 2020.”
It said country rankings were unchanged from a year ago.

By Ife Ogunfuwa