2021 Forbes List: Dangote, Adenugu, Rabiu Among Africa’s Top 10 Billionaires

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Obiajulu Joel Nwolu

Obiajulu Joel Nwolu is an established writer at africannewstoday.com. He is passionate about African affairs. He loves writing about interesting facts relating to the African continent and enjoys sharing his knowledge with others.

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Nigeria’s Aliko Dangote has made the 2021 Forbes’ Africa Billionaires List released on Friday as the richest person in Africa, a position he has held for the past 10 years.

Also, Nigeria had prominent businessmen, Mike Adenuga of Globacom, and Abdulsamad Rabiu of BUA Group listed as the 5th and 6th richest persons in Africa respectively.

According to Forbes, as in elsewhere in the world, the wealthiest person in Africa was not so much affected by the pandemic.

It said that Africa’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.

Forbes report said, “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.”

Nassef Sawiris of Egypt made the list as the second richest person in Africa. He boasts of nearly six per cent stake in sportswear maker Adidas.

Named as the number three was 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 per cent stake in DeBeers to mining giant AngloAmerican for $5.1bn.

Forbes said the biggest gainer this year was another Nigerian cement tycoon, Rabiu.

“Remarkably, shares of his BUA Cement Plc, which listed on the Nigeria Stock Exchange in January 2020, have doubled in value in the past year,” the report stated.

That pushed Rabiu’s fortune up by an extraordinary 77 per cent, to $5.5bn, adding that Rabiu and his son together own about 97 per cent of the company, giving the company a tiny public float.

It noted that while the wealth of some appreciated, two from the 2020 list of Africa’s richest dropped below the $1bn mark.

Remarkably, the only two women billionaires from Africa had both fallen off the list.

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

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

It was gathered that the 18 billionaires from Africa were from seven different countries.

South Africa and Egypt topped the list with five billionaires each, followed by Nigeria with three and Morocco with two.

Put together, they were worth $73.8bn, slightly more than the $73.4bn aggregate worth of the 20 billionaires on last year’s list of Africa’s richest people.