There’s no doubt about it: Africa’s richest are getting richer. In this, FORBES’ third annual list of Africa’s Richest, we rank 50 tycoons from 10 countries, including, for the first time, Algeria. The number of 10-figure fortunes in Africa has surged to 27, up from 16 a year ago.
The main reasons: Rising stock prices, new business deals, and new moguls and assets discovered as a result of FORBES reporters’ research. What a difference a decade makes. In 2003, FORBES counted only two billionaires in Africa – Nicky Oppenheimer and Johann Rupert, both of South Africa.
Aliko Dangote of Nigeria tops the list for the third year in a row, with a fortune of $20.8 billion – $8.8 billion more than in November 2012, making him the biggest gainer in dollar terms.
About 90% of his net worth lies in his shares of publicly traded Dangote Cement , which has operations in a host of African countries and plans to expand.
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| Joann Rupert and wife (2nd Richest in Africa) |
Stephen Saad of South Africa rode a rocketing share price at pharmaceutical firm Aspen Pharmacare, which took him to a net worth of $1.5 billion, up from $975 million a year ago. (Aspen Pharmacare manufactures drugs in 17 factories spread across five continents.) Koos Bekker, the CEO of South African media and investment firm Naspers, joined the billionaires’ ranks as the value of his options and exercised shares rose.
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| Mrs Folorunsho Alakija (13th Richest in Africa) |
The oldest person on the list is Miloud Chaabi of Morrocco, age 84. The youngest is newcomer Mohammed “Mo” Dewji of Tanzania, age 38. The number of women on the list is two, unchanged from a year ago. Thirty-seven of the fortunes were self made; the remaining 13 were inherited but are being expanded. South Africa is the country with the most list members, at 14. Twelve of the 50 built their wealth through diversified fortunes; 7 hail from finance and there are 4 fortunes each in real estate and telecom. The average net worth of each list member is $2.1 billion and the total wealth of Africa’s 50 Richest is $103.8 billion.
Our list tracks the wealth of African citizens who reside on the continent, thus excluding Sudanese-born billionaire Mo Ibrahim, who is a U.K. citizen, and billionaire London resident Mohamed Al-Fayed, an Egyptian citizen. We calculated net worths using stock prices and exchange rates from the close of business on Friday, November 1. To value privately-held businesses we couple estimates of revenues or profits with prevailing price-to-sales or price-to-earnings ratios for similar public companies.
We have purposely excluded dispersed family fortunes such as the Chandaria family of Kenya and the Madhvanis of Uganda, because the wealth is believed to be held by dozens of family members. We do include wealth belonging to a member’s immediate relatives if the wealth can be traced to one living individual; in that case, you’ll see “& family” on our list as an indication.
We would like to thank the following people and institutions for their valuable guidance with our research:
Temitope Adeyinka, Petroleum Development Consultants
Source: Forbes
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