Richest Africans: Dangote, Adenuga, Rabiu Top 2021 Forbes’ List As Alakija Drops

'Dotun Akintomide
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The Chairman, Dangote Group- Aliko Dangote, Mike Adenuga of Globacom and Abdul Samad Rabiu of BUA group made the 2021 annual Forbes Ranking of billionaires.

Aliko Dangote tops the list with net worth of $12.1 billion, followed by Mike Adenuga who made the 5th position with $6.5 billion net worths while Abdul Samad of BUA group came 6th with $5.5 billion net worths in Africa.

However, in the world, Elon Musk of Tesla overtakes Jeff Bezos of Amazon to become the world richest person due to the sudden increase in the share price of Tesla.

According to Forbes, a total of 18 billionaires who hail from seven African countries made the 2021made 2021 Forbes Ranking of world billionaires. Five of them came from South Africa, five from Egypt, Morocco has two and the remaining three are from Nigeria.

Notably, Forbes added that, “Africa’s 18 billionaires are worth an average $4.1 billion, 12% more than a year ago, driven in part by Nigeria’s surging stock market with Aliko Dangote retaining his place as the continent’s richest at $12.1 billion, up by $2 billion from last year’s list thanks to a roughly 30% rise in the share price of Dangote Cement, by far his most valuable asset.

Altogether, they are worth $73.8 billion, slightly more than the $73.4 billion aggregate worth of the 20 billionaires on last year’s list of Africa’s richest people.

In addition, Forbes stated further that, “the method of selection focuses on the wealth of African billionaires who reside in Africa or have their primary business there. Thus excluding Sudanese-born billionaire Mo Ibrahim, who is a U.K. citizen and billionaire London resident Mohamed Al-Fayed, an Egyptian citizen. Strive Masiyiwa, a citizen of Zimbabwe and a London resident, appears on the list due to his telecom holdings in Africa.”

Also, “we calculated net worths using stock prices and currency exchange rates from the close of business on Friday, January 8, 2021. To value privately held businesses, we start with estimates of revenues or profits and apply prevailing price-to-sale or price-to-earnings ratios for similar public companies. Some list members grow richer or poorer within weeks-or days-of our measurement date.” Forbes said.

This time, there are no women from Africa in the 2021 Forbes list as Folorunsho Alakija of Nigeria, who holds the record as richest African woman dropped below $1 billion due to lower oil prices.

The Forbes annual list of billionaires is the World’s most comprehensive billionaires ranking in the world and is calculated based on net worth using stock prices and currency exchange rates from the close of business on January 8, 2021.

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