The chairman and chief executive officer of Dangote group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has been named the African richest person for the seventh year in a row by the Forbes, an American business magazine. NAIJ.com gathered that Dangote who is Nigerian cement and commodities tycoon, with a net worth that Forbes pegged at $12.2 billion is up by $100 million from a year ago. Dangote is looking beyond cement his most valuable asset and has been investing in a fertilizer production company and a large oil refinery.
Dangote Fertilizer is expected to start operations in the second quarter this year.
Forbes reports that buoyed by rising stock markets and commodity prices, Africa's billionaires are collectively wealthier than a year ago. The 23 billionaires that Forbes found in Africa up from 21 billionaires last year are worth a combined $75.4 billion, compared to $70 billion in January 2017.
Number two on the list is diamond mining heir, Nicky Oppenheimer of South Africa, with a net worth of $7.7 billion, up $700 million from last year. Oppenheimer is one of 8 South Africans on the list, making it the African country with the most billionaires.
Last year, South Africa and Egypt tied with 6 billionaires each. Boosting the South African ranks this year: newcomer Michiel Le Roux, the founder and former chairman of Johannesburg-listed Capitec Bank Holdings, whose stock has climbed more than 50% in the past year, making Le Roux a new billionaire worth $1.2 billion.
South African mining tycoon, Desmond Sacco, chairman of listed Assore Group, returns to the list following a stock price surge of some 60% in the past 12 months. Sacco last appeared as a billionaire on the Africa’s Richest list in 2012 with a $1.4 billion fortune. (He also appeared on the 2014 Forbes list of the World’s Billionaires, worth $1.3 billion.)
