Africa Forbes’ Billionaires: Dangote tops list, Alakija drops off

 Africa Forbes’ Billionaires: Dangote tops list, Alakija drops off

By Modupe Shodeinde

The 2021 Africa Forbes’ Billionaires list has named Nigeria’s Aliko Dangote as the richest person in Africa, a position he has maintained for 10 years.

The list which was released on Friday, also showed that Nigeria’s Mike Adenuga of Globacom, and Abdulsamad Rabiu of BUA Group, respectively made it as the 5th and 6th richest persons in Africa.

The Forbes’ report stated that in Africa, as elsewhere in the world, the wealthiest came through the pandemic just fine.

“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 report stated.

The second richest person named on the list is Nassef Sawiris of Egypt, whose largest asset is a nearly 6% stake in sportswear maker Adidas.

Number three on the list is 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% stake in DeBeers to mining giant AngloAmerican for $5.1 billion.

Nigerian cement tycoon, Abdulsamad Rabiu, is the biggest gainer in this year. This is because shares of his BUA Cement PLC, which listed on the Nigeria Stock Exchange in January 2020, have doubled in value in the past year.

Read More  LASG seeks residents' support to end fraudulent practices in real estate

“That pushed Rabiu’s fortune up by an extraordinary 77%, to $5.5 billion.”

The report also stated that two from the 2020 list of Africa’s richest dropped below the $1 billion mark. The only two women billionaires from Africa have both fallen off the list.

“Forbes calculates that the fortune of Folorunsho Alakija of Nigeria, who owns an oil exploration company, dropped below $1 billion due to lower oil prices.

Also, the richest woman in Africa since 2013, Isabel dos Santos, “was knocked from her perch by a series of court decisions freezing her assets in both Angola and Portugal.

In January 2020, the attorney general of Angola charged Dos Santos with embezzlement and money laundering.”

Forbes marked Santos’ frozen assets at zero.

The report stated that the continent’s 18 billionaires were worth an average $4.1bn, 12 per cent more than a year ago, driven in part by Nigeria’s surging stock market.

It added that they hailed from seven different countries, with South Africa and Egypt each having five billionaires, Nigeria three and Morocco two.

Altogether they are worth $73.8 billion, slightly more than the $73.4 billion aggregate worth of the 20 billionaires on last year’s list of Africa’s richest people.

The Forbes’ African billionaires’ list tracks the wealth of African billionaires who reside in Africa or have their primary business there.

lagosstreetjournal

Related post