Nigeria, Africa may not conjure up images of gold and sparkling palaces like Abu Dhabi or Singapore, but if you’re Aliko Mohammed Dangote — the wealthiest man in Africa with a personal fortune of USD $17 billion — that is exactly the place you’ll call home. A self-made business tycoon, he tops the Wealth-X list of Africa’s wealthiest individuals joining nine of the top 10 individuals whose combined fortune comes out to around USD $73.2 billion.
Headquartered in Singapore, Wealth-X is a definitive source of intelligence on the ultra wealthy and has one of the world’s largest collections of curated research on ultra high net worth (UHNW) individuals. Those who qualify are defined as those with net assets of USD $30 million and above.
Primarily dominated by South Africans and Egyptians, these super rich make up 0.4 percent of Africa’s ultra high net worth (UHNW) population and over 20 percent of the UHNW wealth in the region. As a part of the Wealth-X and UBS World Ultra Wealth Report 2013, the list was released showing that in 2013, Africa’s UHNW population increased by 9.5 percent to 2,775 individuals. The 7.7 percent rise from last year was a total combined wealth of USD $350 billion.
In order by rank, the listed individuals and their countries of residence were ranked by their net worth in US $ billion.
- Aliko Mohammed Dangote, Nigeria 17
- Nassef Onsi Najib Sawiris, Egypt 8
- Naguib Onsi Najib Sawiris, Egypt 7.3
- Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, Tunisia 7
- Michael Adeniyi Isola Adenuga, Nigeria 6.8
In 1977, Dangote started a small trading firm which is now Nigeria’s largest conglomerate and a major supplier to the country’s soft drink companies, breweries and confectionaries. His company, Dangote Group, effectively leads its sugar market.
While four South Africans appear on the list — Johann Rupert (USD $6.6 billion), Gaynor Rupert (USD $6.5 billion), Nicholas Oppenheimer (USD $6.3 billion) and Christoffel Wiese (US $2.9 billion) — the only other Nigerian on it is Michael Adeniyi Isola Adenuga, with a net worth of USD $6.8 billion. Chairman and CEO of Globacom Limited, Adenuga owns a telecommunications company in Lagos.
