Dangote tops Forbes African rich list
As part of African Business Review’s look back at the biggest news from 2011, we revisit a story from November.
Aliko Dangote has been named the richest man in Africa by Forbes magazine.
The Nigerian business tycoon reportedly has a fortune of $10.1 billion, owning the Dangote Group which includes cement, flour milling and sugar refining branches.
The US magazine’s first ever African rich list placed South Africa’s Nicky Oppenheimer second with a $6.5 billion fortune. The Oppenheimer family announced earlier this year that they would be selling their stake in diamond distributor De Beers.
Dangote and Oppenheimer are two of 16 billionaires on the list, which totals a combined wealth of $64.9bn and doesn’t contain any females.
According to Forbes, Egypt has the most billionaires, with seven coming from two families, the Sawiris and Mansours. Wealth was calculated using stock prices for publicly-traded companies and estimates of revenues or profits for privately-held businesses.
Below are the top 10:
1. Aliko Dangote, 54 - $10.1 billion
2. Nicky Oppenheimer (& family), 66 - $6.5bn
3. Nassef Sawiris, 50 - $4.75bn
4. Johann Rupert, 61 - $4.7bn
5. Mike Adenuga, 58 - $4.3bn
6. Miloud Chaabi, 82 - $3bn
7. Naguib Sawiris, 57 - $2.9bn
8. Christoffel Wiese, 70 - $2.7bn
9. Onsi Sawiris, 81 - $2.6bn
10. Patrice Motsepe, 49, $2.5bn