AFRICA’S RICHEST 2021

TURNS OUT THAT in Africa – as elsewhere in the world – it doesn’t hurt to be a billionaire during a global pandemic. As a group, the continent’s 18 billionaires are on average worth $4.1 billion, 12% more than a year ago, partially driven by Nigeria’s surging stock market.

For the tenth year in a row, Aliko Dangote of Nigeria is the continent’s richest person, worth $12.1 billion, up by $2 billion from last year’s list thanks to a roughly 30% rise in the share price of Dangote Cement, by far his most valuable asset.

For the tenth year in a row, Aliko Dangote of Nigeria is the continent’s richest person, worth $12.1 billion.

The biggest gainer this year is another Nigerian cement tycoon, Abdulsamad 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. That pushed Rabiu’s fortune up by an extraordinary 77%, to $5.5 billion. One thing to note: Rabiu and his son together own about 97% of the company, giving the company a tiny public float. The Nigerian Stock Exchange requires that either 20% or more of a company’s shares to be floated to the public, or that the floated shares are worth at least 20 billion naira – about $50 million. A spokesman for the Nigerian Stock Exchange told Forbes that BUA Cement meets the second requirement. (Forbes discounts the value of stakes when the public float of a company is less than 5%.)

While some got richer by the billions, two dropped below the $1 billion mark.

In fact, 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.

And Isabel dos Santos, who since 2013 has been