Forbes released the list of Africa’s richest people and with no surprise
our very own Aliko Dangote is at the top of the list. Nigeria also
beats South Africa for the first time since the inception of Forbes
Richest people in Africa by claiming 13 spots on the list while South
Africa has claims to 11 spots.
Nigeria produced two new comers to the list of Africa’s richest Orji
Uzor Kalu and Tony Elumelu and three new billionaires: Theophilus
Danjuma, Uzor Kalu and Tony Elumelu.
Abdulsamad Rabiu left the Billionaires club as he dropped beow $1
billion due to ceased operations at his floating cement terminal in
Nigeria.
Nigeria’s Sani Bello was on the list last year but he fell from the ranks of Africa’s richest in 2014.
He recently sold his shares in a Nigerian oil exploration firm and stepped down as director of the company.
His Sani Bello foundation provides small loans and grants to young
Nigerian entrepreneurs. His estimated worth, which was $500 million on
2013, fell below $400 million this year
The oldest person on the list is 75 – Theophilus Danjuma. The youngest
is Femi Odetola, age 48. There is only one woman on the list.
13. Oba Otudeko
Net Worth: $550 Million (As of November 2014)
Rank In Nigeria: #13
Rank In Africa: #46 (#33 in 2013)
Oba Otudeko is the founder and chairman of Honeywell Group.
The conglomerate’s operations stretch across oil and gas, flour milling, real estate and marine transportation.
Another piece of his fortune is in the oceanfront Radisson Blu in Lagos, Nigeria.
12. Hakeem Belo-Osagie
Net Worth: $600
Rank In Nigeria: #12
Rank In Africa: #41 (#34 in 2013)
Hakeem Belo-Osagie is the chairman of Etisalat Nigeria.
His father was the gynecologist to the family of former Nigerian
military president Ibrahim Babangida. Through that connection, he was
able to secure a job as a Special Assistant to the Presidential Adviser
on petroleum and energy and later as Special Assistant to the Minister
of Petroleum and Energy, positions which he admits put him in a position
to close on a few oil deals from where he made his first fortune.
In 1998, he acquired a controlling stake in the United Bank For Africa,
but was ousted out by the Central Bank in the wake of allegations of
fraudulent practices orchestrated by him.
He also owns First Securities Discount House, a money markets and Treasury bill trading and financial services firm in Nigeria.
He is one of the sponsors of a new $120 million shopping mall currently
being developed in Jabi Lake in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.
11. Tunde Folawiyo
Net Worth: $650 Million
Rank In Nigeria: #11
Rank In Africa: #39 (#50 in 2013)
Tunde Folawiyo is the managing director of the Yinka Folawiyo Group,
conglomerate with interests in energy, agriculture, shipping, real
estate and engineering.
His father, Wahab Folawiyo, a well known Nigerian businessman and
Islamic leader, started the group in 1957 as a commodities trading
outfit and served as chairman until 2008 when he passed away. Folawiyo
now calls the shots.
The company’s oil exploration firm, Yinka Folawiyo Petroleum, owns a 60%
interest in an oil block that contains the Aje offshore field.
Other assets include minority stakes in Nigeria’s Access Bank and mobile phone carrier MTN Nigeria.
10. Mohammed Indimi
Net Worth: $670 Million
Rank in Nigeria: #10
Rank In Africa: #37 (#34 In 2013)
Mohammed Indimi founded Oriental Energy Resources, a privately held Nigerian oil exploration and production company.
He remains chairman. Oriental currently has three projects offshore of
Nigeria. Six of his children serve on the company’s board.
9. Abdulsalam Rabiu
Net Worth: $700 Million
Rank In Nigeria: #9
Rank in Africa: #33 (#23 in 2013)
Abdulsamad Rabiu runs BUA Group, a conglomerate active in flour milling,
pasta manufacturing, ports and terminals management and sugar refining.
The group stopped operations at its BUA Cement unit, a cement trading
business, after the Nigerian government banned imports of bulk cement in
2013.
BUA Group operates two cement plants in Nigeria and reportedly spent
$500 million for a new cement plant in Nigeria’s Edo State that is
expected to open in early 2015.
Rabiu, the son of a businessman, set up his own business in 1988,
importing rice, sugar and edible oils as well as iron and steel rods.
8. Jim Ovia
Net Worth: $850 Million
Rank In Nigeria: #8
Rank in Africa: #30 (#28 in 2013)
In July, banker Jim Ovia was appointed as chairman of Zenith Bank Group, the same bank he founded more than 20 years ago.
He remains the bank’s largest individual shareholder with a 9.3% stake.
His other assets include real estate across Nigeria, and Visafone.
In August, he started construction on a $1.5 billion petrochemical complex in Akwa-Ibom in Nigeria.
7. Femi Otedola
Net Worth: $900 Million
Rank In Nigeria: #7
Rank IN Africa: #29 (#49 in 2013)
Earlier this year, Femi Otedola made $398 Million in 90 days as the shares of Forte Oil Plc surged 176% in that peroid
Nigerian energy tycoon Femi Otedola heads petroleum marketing company
Forte Oil, whose shares soared starting in the spring of 2014 but have
fallen from the high levels reached in June.
Otedola is the controlling shareholder of Forte Oil, with a 75% stake.
The company owns gas stations and fuel storage depots and manufactures
its own line of engine oils.
Forte said its shares rose earlier in 2014 on account of new investments in power generation and distribution.
6. Orji Uzor Kalu
Net Worth: $ 1 Billion
Rank In Nigeria: #5
Rank In Africa: #26 (Newcomer)
Orji Uzor Kalu is new to Forbes list of Africa’s 50 Richest this year.
He got his start in business at age 19 after being expelled from a
Nigerian university for spearheading a series of student riots.
He then took a $35 loan from his mother and started trading commodities like palm oil, rice, sugar, salt and flour.
He diversified into furniture manufacturing and transportation and became a millionaire by the time he was 20.
He hit the big time in the early 80s when the Nigerian military
government awarded him lucrative contracts to import and supply arms and
ammunition to Nigeria’s military and defense forces.
He is the founder of Slok Holding, a $2.5 billion (annual revenues) West
African conglomerate with interests in shipping, banking, oil trading,
manufacturing and the media.
He was previously a governor of Abia state.
5. Tony Elumelu
Net Worth: $1 Billion
Rank in Nigeria: #5
Rank in Africa: #26 (Newcomer)
Nigerian-born Tony Elumelu, one of Africa’s most revered business
leaders, makes his debut on the Forbes list of Africa’s richest this
year thanks to a variety of investments, including a controlling
interest in Transcorp; a significant stake in the United Bank for
Africa;and an extensive portfolio of real estate across Nigeria, among
other assets.
In 1997, when he was 34, he led a small group of investors to acquire
Standard Trust Bank, a struggling commercial bank in Lagos, and restored
the bank to profitability within a few years.
In 2005, he merged the bank with the United Bank for Africa and
transformed it from a single-country commercial bank into a financial
services institution with operations in several African countries. He
served as CEO until 2010.
He subsequently set up Heirs Holding to invest across Africa.
Elumelu is the author and leading proponent of ‘Africapitalism,’ an
economic philosophy that advocates the private sector’s commitment to
Africa’s development through long-term investment in strategic sectors
of the economy.
4. Theophilus Danjuma
Net Worth: $1.1 Billion
Rank IN Nigeria: #4
Rank In Arica: #21 (#29 in 2013)
Theophilus Danjuma, a former Nigerian defense minister, is the founder and owner of South Atlantic Petroleum (SAPETRO).
It owns a 15% stake in the Akpo deepwater oil field alongside operator Total and China’s CNOOC.
He also owns a stake in Notore Chemical Industries, a manufacturer of
urea fertilizer, as well as a stake in NALComet, one of Nigeria’s
largest shipping companies.
His net worth has risen since last year due to more detailed information about SAPETRO’s assets.
3. Folorunsho Alakija
Net Worth: $2.5 Billion
Rank In Nigeria: #3
Rank in Africa: #12 (#13 in 2013)
Folorunsho is the only woman on the list and the second richest woman in Africa.
Folorunsho Alakija’s winding path to becoming the second richest woman
in Africa began in London, where she pursued secretarial studies and
fashion design as a young woman. (She and her sister were reportedly the
only two of her father’s 52 children sent abroad to study).
After returning to Nigeria to work as an executive secretary for several
corporations, including the former First National Bank of Chicago, she
founded her own tailoring company, Supreme Stitches.
With clients such as former first lady Maryam Babandiga, her company quickly rose to prominence among Nigeria’s high society.
Her closeness with Babandiga proved even more valuable when the Ministry
of Energy approved her oil prospecting license in 1993, granting her a
lucrative block in Nigeria’s coastal waters. Famfa Oil, which she
controls, now holds a 60% stake in the oil field. It pumps about 200,000
barrels a day.
Alakija continues to work toward a better future for Nigeria. In 2008,
she founded The Rose of Sharon Foundation, which works to help widows
and orphans.
In July 2014, she pledged to donate $4.5 million to the Victims Support
Fund, an initiative spearheaded by Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan,
aimed at providing relief for those who have been adversely affected by
insurgency in Nigeria over the last few years.
Alakija apparently owns several luxury apartments in the U.K. and has a private plane.
2. Mike Adenuga
Net Worth: $4.6Billion
Rank in Nigeria: #2
Rank in Africa: #6 (#5 in 2013)
Mike Adenuga is Nigeria’s second richest man, thanks to savvy investments in mobile telecom and oil production.
In 2003, he founded Globacom, which now has more than 27 million
subscribers in Nigeria, making it the second largest mobile phone
network company in the country after South African giant MTN.
Adenuga is also the founder of oil exploration firm Conoil Producing,
which owns at least 3 producing oil blocks and is exploring for oil on 4
others.
Adenuga made his first fortune trading lace and Coca-Cola after returning from his studies in the United States.
He made key friendships with top Nigerian military personnel and earned lucrative state contracts along the way.
1. Aliko Dangote
Net Worth: $21.6 Billion
Rank In Nigeria: #1
Rank in Africa: #1 (#1 in 2013)
Heralded by some as the face of the new Nigeria, Aliko Dangote, Africa’s
richest man, is looking beyond cement, sugar and flour — the three
commodities that built his fortune — to the oil business.
In April he announced $9 billion in financing from a consortium of local
and international lenders to construct a private oil refinery and
fertilizer and petrochemical complex in the country.
In August he said he would invest $1 billion in commercial rice farming and modern rice mills.
His publicly traded Dangote Cement is also grabbing new markets in
Africa, with $750 million in new plants planned for Kenya and Niger.
He made his first fortune more than three decades ago when he started trading commodities with a loan from his powerful uncle.
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-forbes.com
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