Only 5 of Africa’s 18 billionaires are black

Of the 18 richest people in Africa, only five of them are Black.

That’s right: on the continent of Africa, 72 percent of the richest people are either white or of other non-Black descent.

That’s according to the latest list compiled by Forbes, which revealed that more African billionaires are Afrikaners (descendants from the Dutch, French, and German colonialists in South Africa) than any other African subgroup. And this shouldn’t be surprising, considering how the after-effects of colonial times are still being felt today.

In 2015, data released by New World Wealth (via BusinessTech of South Africa) revealed that there was an inequitable transfer of wealth to so-called “marginalized groups,” which includes groups of Black Africans that didn’t even have rights in the country prior to 1994 on account of apartheid.

While these statistics about the richest people in Africa are distressing, it’s still better than the statistics regarding the number of Black billionaires in America. As AfroTech previously reported, only seven billionaires — out of 724 — are Black, meaning less than one percent of all billionaires in the United States are Black.

So, we say this all to say — we still have a long way to go, both in the United States and in Africa to reach full Black equity.

Here are the black African billionaires:

Aliko Dangote
Ranking: #1

Aliko Dangote is not only the richest Black man in Africa, but he’s also the richest man in Africa period, and he’s the richest Black man in the world. According to Forbes, he has a real-time net worth of US$14 billion, which was made from his manufacturing business.

Abdul Samad Rabiu
Ranking: #5

With a huge diversified portfolio that has its hand in such businesses as cement production, sugar refining and real estate, the head of the Nigeria-based BUA Conglomerate has a real-time net worth of US$6.9 billion, per Forbes.

Mike Adenuga
Ranking: #6

Mike Adenuga is Nigeria’s second-richest man, and he made his US$7.1 billion real-time net worth in the telecommunications industry, according to Forbes.

Patrice Motsepe
Ranking: #9

Patrice Motsepe is someone who continues to diversify his investments. As AfroTech recently reported, he recently dropped over US$5 million on a luxury wine farm! Forbes reports that he has a real-time net worth of US$3.2 billion.

Strive Masiyiwa
Ranking: #10

He’s Britain’s first Black billionaire (though he is Zimbabwean), and his diverse telecom investments span over several African countries. Forbes reports that he has a real-time net worth of US$3.2 billion (but had a net worth of $2.7 billion at the time the 2022 African Billionaires list was released).

By Bernadette Giacomazzo for Afrotech

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