South African Billionaires Top The List Of Africa’s 50 Richest
South African billionaires top the list of 50 richest African people. Johann Rupert leads the way with an estimated $7.9 billion fortune.
The list, compiled by Forbes Magazine, names 14 businessmen from South Africa, 11 from Nigeria, and 9 from Egypt, as the richest people in Africa.
South Africa’s 14 billionaires have a net worth of $28.79 billion and an average net worth of $2.06 billion.
Johann Rupert has been crowned the richest man in the country, with a fortune of $7.9 billion, which grew 39 percent compared to last year.
Rupert’s billions are made largely of stocks from luxury goods manufacturer Richemont.
Not all South African billionaires saw their fortunes grow as much as Rupert did, following small gains in the resources and mining sectors.
Nicky Oppenheimer ($6.6 billion), who recently sold his diamond mining firm De Beers for $5.1 billion; Patrice Motsepe ($2.7 billion) chairman of African Rainbow Minerals, and Desmond Sacco ($1.4 billion) chairman of Assore Chairman did not see much change in their fortunes from 2012.
All this didn’t prevent Nigerian magnate, Aliko Dangote, with a net worth of $20.8 billion, to top the list of African billionaires once again.
More than double the fortune of his nearest competitor, Dangote and his cement company has expanded operations across the African continent and established himself as the most successful businessman in the continent.
Stephen Saad, chairman of Aspen Pharmacare, saw 50 percent growth in his fortune compared to last year, to $1.5 billion, making him one of the standouts this time around.
Saad’s co-founder Gus Attridge made the list of South African billionaires for the first time as well, with a net worth of $525 million.
Forbes list of Africa’s 50 Richest only includes people who are born in and whose primary residence is Africa, thus excluding individuals such as Allan Gray, who lives in Bermuda and UK resident Donald Gordon.
Out of the 14 South African billionaires, Naspers CEO, Koos Bekker, is the only one who is connected to the technology and media industry with investments in China and Russia.
Forbes points out the lack of diversity in the list of South African billionaires, which does includes no women and only two black businessmen within its ranks.
