Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote has been named as Africa’s richest person for the sixth year running with a $12.1 billion fortune despite his net value falling by $5 billion in 2016.
Falling commodity prices and tough economic times in the continent saw 7 rich Africans lose the coveted dollar billionaire status with only 21 making it to the Forbes list compared to 28 in 2014 as 23 billionaires were listed in 2015.
South Africa billionaires dominate the list followed by Egypt, Nigeria and Morocco with three billionaries each listed in the annual ranking.
No Kenyan has made it to the list with the report saying it has excluded fortunes held by dispersed family members like the Chandarias – one of Kenya’s richest families – and Uganda’s Madhvanis.
The list is however only including African billionaires living in Africa, instead of featuring Africa’s 50 richest people.
Forbes indicates that there are 21 billionaires on the 2016 list, worth a combined $70 billion compared to the November 2015 Africa Rich List that had 23 African billionaires worth a combined $79.8 billion.
“Dangote is joined by two other Nigerian billionaires on this year’s list – telecom tycoon Mike Adenuga, who is Africa’s third richest person with an estimated $5.8 billion fortune, and oil billionaire Folorunsho Alakija, who has an estimated net worth of $1.6 billion,” Forbes reports.
Algeria and Angola have one billionaire each with Tanzania’s CEO of conglomerate METL Mohammed Dewji listed as Africa’s youngest billionaire at 41.
A weakened Nigeria currency made two Nigerians drop off the list – oil marketer Femi Otedola, whose net worth dropped from $1.6 billion in November 2015 to just $330 million today, and sugar billionaire Abdulsamad Rabiu, who’s net worth dropped below $1 billion.
Thirteen out of Africa’s 21 billionaires have self-made fortunes, while the other eight inherited their fortunes.
“This year’s list includes only billionaires, rather than the 50 richest people living in Africa. We calculated net worths using stock prices and currency exchange rates from the close of business on Thursday, January 5. To value privately-held businesses, we couple estimates of revenues or profits with prevailing price-to-sales or price-to-earnings ratios for similar public companies,” Forbes added.
See the full list of Africa’s billionaires here >> http://www.forbes.com/africa-billionaires/list/