African Billionaires

Ventures Africa, an African business magazine, has launched its first annual Africa rich list.

The list provides some interesting insight into the number of African billionaires. Venture Africa lists 55 African billionaires, a big increase on previous estimates of the number of African billionaires. This puts Africa on par with Latin America which is estimated to be have 51 billionaires but behind Asia which is estimated to have 399 billionaires.

The new list estimates the combined wealth of the African billionaires at $145 billion.

Nigerian, Aliko Dangote is listed at the top of Africa’s rich list with an estimated fortune of over $20 billion. Dangote built up the Dangote Group, a manufacturing conglomerate which is now the largest in West Africa.

Africa’s richest women is listed as Folorunsho Alakija. Alakija is a Nigerian who owns a large part of an oil company.

Unsurprisingly, Nigeria and South Africa have the largest number of billionaires in Africa.