- Dangote Emerges Africa’s Wealthiest Man for 9th Time
Despite the total net worth of Aliko Dangote, the Chairman of Dangote Group, decreasing by $200 million in one year, Dangote emerged Africa’s richest man for the ninth consecutive year.
The net worth of the richest black man alive dropped from $10.3 billion to $10.1 billion during the period under review. However, Forbes, an American media company that ranks billionaires, attributed the slightly decline to drop in stock price of Dangote Cement.
Mike Adenuga, Nigerian billionaire with stakes in telecom, Globalcom, Conoil and real estate, came third with a net worth of $7.7 billion. Adenuga shared the third position with Nicky Oppenheimer, a South African.
In eight position was the owner of BUA Cement Plc, Abdulsamad Rabiu. Rabiu with 98.5 percent stakes in BUA Cement Plc recently merged his privately owned Obu Cement company with Cement Company of Northern Nigeria.
Folorunsho Alakija, the Vice Chair of Nigeria’s Famfa Oil, was ranked 20th billionaire in Africa with a net worth of $1 billion. Isabel dos Santos, the eldest daughter of Angola’s former president was the second woman on the list with a net worth of $2.2 billion, down from $2.3 billion a year ago.
According to Forbes, out of the eight African countries that have billionaires, South Africa came first with five billionaires, while Nigeria closely trailed South Africa with four billionaires.
In total, the 20 billionaires have combined net worth of $73.4 billion, up from $68.7 billion a year ago.
Explaining the ranking metrics, Forbes 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.”