Forbes List: The African Billionaires 2015

This year, a record 1,826
billionaires made it to
FORBES’ annual ranking of
the world’s richest people.
There are 29 African
billionaires this year, the
same number as in 2014.
While 2 tycoons – South
African mining magnate
Desmond Sacco and
Moroccan real estate mogul
Anas Sefrioui fell off the
billionaire rankings this year,
Mohammed Dewji of
Tanzania makes his debut on
the list with a fortune
estimated at $1.3 billion. At
39, Dewji is the youngest
billionaire in Africa. Dewji’s
company, METL Group
manufactures textiles and
consumer goods and has
annual revenues of more than
$1.4 billion. Nigerian-born
Femi Otedola, 50, rejoins the
list of African billionaires after
a 5-year hiatus with a $1
billion fortune. He owns a
controlling stake in Forte Oil,
a publicly-listed energy
distribution company in
Nigeria. Folorunsho Alakija of
Nigeria and Isabel dos Santos
of Angola are the only two
female billionaires on the
continent.
Meet the 29 Africans who are
worth $1 billion or more:
Aliko Dangote, $15.7 billion
Nigerian, Cement, Flour,
Sugar
Falling stock prices and a
recent valuation of the Naira
might have dented his
fortune, causing him to lose
roughly $10 billion since last
year, but Aliko Dangote is still
the richest man in Africa. His
Dangote Group is West
Africa’s largest industrial
conglomerate and has
interests in cement
production, flour milling,
sugar refining and food and
beverages.
Johann Rupert & Family, $
7.4 billion
South African, Luxury Goods
Rupert is the chairman of
publicly-listed Swiss-based
luxury goods outfit
Compagnie Financiere
Richemont , which owns
brands including Cartier , Van
Cleef & Arpels, Jaeger-
LeCoultre and Montblanc. He
also owns stakes in
investment holding
companies Remgro and
Reinet. He also owns two of
South Africa’s best-known
vineyards, Rupert &
Rothschild and L’Ormarins as
well as the Franschhoek
Motor Museum which houses
his personal collection of over
200 antique vehicles
Nicky Oppenheimer & Family,
$6.7 billion
South African, Diamonds
Oppenheimer cashed out of
the diamond business in July
2012 when he disposed of his
family’s 40% stake in his
family’s diamond business,
De Beers to Anglo American
for $5.1 billion in an all-cash
deal that marked the end of
the Oppenheimer family’s
multi-decade control of the
diamond company. His E.
Oppenheimer & Son entity
controls investment arms
Stockdale Street Capital and
Tana Africa Capital, a joint
venture with Singapore
government-owned
investment firm Temasek.
Tana holds minority interests
in African food manufacturers
Promasidor and Regina Co.
Christoffel Wiese, $6.3 billion
South African, Retail
Wiese, a South African retail
mogul, owns a 15% stake in
Shoprite Holdings, a chain of
low-price supermarkets with
a presence across multiple
African countries. He also
owns a large stake in Pepkor,
a private company that owns
seven different discount
fashion brands. His other
assets include Lanzerac
Manor & Winery, a five-star
hotel and a significant
shareholding in Brait, a
private equity firm.
Nassef Sawiris, $6.3 billion

Egyptian, Construction
Sawiris, Egypt’s richest man,
is the CEO of Orascom
Construction Industries (OCI),
the country’s most valuable
publicly-traded company. He
plans to separate OCI’s
construction unit from its
chemicals and fertilizers
business, and list the newly
formed Orascom Construction
in Egypt and the UAE in the
first quarter of 2015. He also
sealed a partnership last
November with Abu Dhabi’s
International Petroleum
Investment Co. to develop a
coal-based power plant in
Egypt.
Mike Adenuga, $4 billion
Nigerian, Telecoms and Oil
The reclusive Nigerian
billionaire is the founder of
Globacom, Nigeria’s second
largest mobile phone network
which has about 27 million
subscribers. He also owns
Conoil Producing, an
indigenous oil exploration
company which holds the
rights to some of Nigeria’s
most lucrative oil fields.
Notoriously private, Adenuga
hardly grants Press
interviews and travels around
in with a retinue of
bodyguards.
Mohamed Mansour, $4
billion

Egyptian, Diversified
Along with his two brothers,
Yasseen and Youssef (also
on FORBES’ billionaires list),
Mohamed runs the Mansour
Group which owns the
world’s largest GM
dealership. The Mansour
Group also owns the largest
supermarket chain in Egypt,
the country’s second largest
real estate developer, Palm
Hills, and the Philip Morris
franchise in Egypt.
Nathan Kirsh, $3.9 billion
Swaziland. Real Estate
Nathan Kirsh, a Swazi
national is the founder of
Jetro Holdings, a cash and
carry wholesaler of perishable
and non-perishable food
products, household goods,
equipment, supplies and
related goods for grocery
retailers. Kirsch made his first
fortune in Swaziland several
decades ago when he
founded a corn milling
business in 1958. He
subsequently expanded into
wholesale food distribution in
apartheid South Africa and
commercial property
development.
Isabel Dos Santos, $3.1
billion
Angolan, Investments
The oldest daughter of
Angola’s president owns
substantial stakes in a
number of blue-chip Angolan
and Portuguese companies
such as Angolan mobile
phone company Unitel ,
Angolan bank Banco BIC SA,
Portuguese media giant ZON
Optimus and Banco BPI. She
is believed to hold many of
these assets in trust for her
father.
Issad Rebrab, $3.1 billion
Egyptian, Telecoms
Naguib Sawiris is the CEO of
Orascom Telecom Media and
Technology (OTMT). The
company owns a 75% stake
in Koryolink, North Korea’s
only cell network. He is
looking to acquire a 53%
stake in French media
company Euronews
Television
Youssef Mansour, $2.9
billion
Egyptian, Diversified
Youssef Mansour is a part
owner of Mansour Group
which owns Caterpillar
dealerships in 8 African
countries and General Motors
dealerships in Egypt and Iraq,
as well as supermarkets,
McDonald’s and Philip Morris
distribution. He maintains a
lower profile than his
billionaire brothers Mohamed
and Yasseen.
Koos Bekker, $2.3 billion
South African, Media
Koos Bekker who has run
Cape Town-based media
conglomerate Naspers since
1997 will be stepping down
as CEO in April this year, and
will be taking a year off to
travel the world and explore
new business opportunities
for the company. He is
expected to take over as
chairman of the company
from next year. Over a 17
year period, Bekker
transformed the storied
publisher into a new media
powerhouse, with
investments in China
(Tencent), Russia (Mail.ru),
Brazil (Abril) and other
countries in Eastern Europe,
Latin America and Africa.
Refusing to take a salary,
Bekker has traditionally been
compensated via stock option
grants that vest over time.
Othman Benjelloun, $2.3
billion
Moroccan, Banking
Othman Benjelloun is the CEO
of BMCE Bank, one of the
largest commercial banks in
Morocco, with operations in
at least 15 African countries.
He is also the chairman of
holding company
FinanceCom which has
interests in banking,
insurance, and telecom in
Morocco.
Yasseen Mansour, $2.3
billion
Egyptian, Diversified
Yasseen Mansour and his
brothers Youssef and
Mohammed run Mansour
Group, a large Egyptian
conglomerate which owns
Caterpillar and General Motor
dealerships, supermarkets,
restaurant franchises, and
Philip Morris distribution in
Egypt.
Patrice Motsepe, $2.1 billion
South African, Mining
South Africa’s first and only
black billionaire is the founder
and chairman of publicly
traded mining conglomerate,
African Rainbow Minerals
(ARM) which has interests in
platinum, nickel, chrome, iron,
manganese, coal, copper and
gold. He also holds a stake in
Sanlam, a publicly traded
financial services company.
Stephen Saad, $2.1 billion
South African,
Pharmaceuticals
Along with business partner
Gus Attridge, Stephen Saad
founded Aspen Pharmacare
in 1997. It is now the largest
publicly-traded drug
manufacturer on the
Johannesburg Stock
Exchange. Aspen is a supplier
of branded and generic
pharmaceuticals in more than
150 countries and of
consumer and nutritional
products in selected
territories. The company has
a market capitalization of $11
billion. Saad is the company’s
largest shareholder.
Mohamed Al Fayed, $2 billion
Egyptian, Property
In 2010 Mohammed Al-Fayed
sold his Harrod’s department
store in London to Qatar
Holding for a reported $2.4
billion and last July, he sold
Fulham Football Club, which
he acquired in 1997 to
American billionaire Shahid
Khan for a reported $300
million. He now owns the
famed Hotel Ritz in Paris
which he closed in August
2012 to start construction on
what will be the hotel’s
biggest redo since it was built
in 1898 and also owns
Cocosa, a U.K.-based
discount fashion website.
Folorunsho Alakija, $1.9
billion
Nigerian, Oil
Nigeria’s first female
billionaire built her fortune on
oil. Nigeria’s former President
Ibrahim Babangida awarded
her company, Famfa Oil a
lucrative oil prospecting
license in 1996 – now OML
127, which is one of Nigeria’s
most prolific oil blocks and
produces as much as 200,000
barrels of oil per day on good
days. Famfa Oil, which Alakija
controls fully, owns a 60%
stake in OML 127.
Onsi Sawiris, $1.8 billion
Egyptian, Diversified
Onsi Sawiris is the patriarch
of Egypt’s wealthiest family,
and founder of the
eponymous Orascom
conglomerate, which is
involved in construction,
telecoms and hotels. The
companies are all run by his
three sons- Naguib, Samih
and Nassef, all billionaires.
Aziz Akhannouch, $1.7
billion
Moroccan, Diversified
Aziz Akhannouch is the
largest shareholder in Akwa
Group, a multi-billion dollar
Moroccan conglomerate with
interests in petroleum, gas
and chemicals through
publicly-traded Afriquia Gas
and Maghreb Oxygene, as
well as media, real estate
development and hotels. His
wife, Salwa Idrissi, runs a
successful real estate
development company in
Morocco, and holds the
Moroccan franchise for Gap,
Zara, and Galeries Lafayette,
among other fashion brands.
Allan Gray, $1.6 billion
South African, Investments
Moneyman Allan Gray
founded Cape Town-based
investment management firm,
Allan Gray Limited in 1973,
after earning his MBA from
Harvard and spending eight
years at Fidelity in the US.
The company manages $34
billion, making it the largest
privately owned asset
manager in South Africa. He
also owns Orbis Investment
Management in Bermuda
which manages $30 billion.
Venerable philanthropist
funds the Allan Gray Orbis
Foundation which awards
higher education grants to
students in Southern Africa.
Miloud Chaabi, $1.3 billion
Moroccan, Diversified
Miloud Chaabi got his start in
1948 developing housing,
then expanded through his
privately owned Ynna Holding
into hotels, supermarkets and
renewable energy. Chaabi has
committed to building a
university in Casablanca in
partnership with Indiana State
University.
Mohammed Dewji, $1.3
billion
Tanzanian, Diversified
Mohammed Dewji turned a
trading house founded by his
father into industrial
conglomerate MeTL Group.
He acquired government-
owned manufacturing plants
in the textiles and edible oils
industries on the cheap and
transformed them into
profitable businesses using
lean management style. He
owns 75% of the group.
Samih Sawiris, $1.1 billion
Egyptian, Property
Development
Samih Sawiris is the
youngest son of Egyptian
construction magnate Onsi
Sawiris. His company,
Orascom Development
develops integrated towns
and operates resorts in Egypt.
He also owns a minority
stake in construction
company, OCI N.V., which
was founded by his father
Onsi and is now run by his
brother Nassef.
Sudhir Ruparelia, $1.1 billion
Ugandan, Property, Banking
East Africa’s richest man is
the founder of the Ruparelia
Group, Uganda’s largest
conglomerate with interests
in property, banking,
education, insurance and
agriculture. It owns a chain of
hotels, hundreds of
commercial and residential
property in Kampala, a
country club, a chain of forex
bureaus, two Highbrow
secondary schools and Crane
Bank, one of the Uganda’s top
3 commercial banks.
Femi Otedola, $1 billion
Nigerian, Gas Stations
Nigeria’s Femi Otedola
returns to Forbes’ list of
billionaires for the first time
since 2009 following a sharp
rise in the share price of
petroleum marketing
company Forte Oil, despite
the drop in oil prices in 2014.
Otedola is the controlling
shareholder of Forte Oil, with
a 78% stake. The company
owns gas stations and fuel
storage depots and
manufactures its own line of
engine oils.
Abdulsamad Rabiu, $1 billion
Nigerian, Diversified
Rabiu, 55, is the founder of
BUA Group, a Nigerian
conglomerate with interests
in sugar refining, cement
production, real estate, steel,
port concessions,
manufacturing, oil gas and
shipping. Rabiu used to work
for his father, legendary
Kano-based businessman,
Isyaku Rabiu, before striking
out on his own in 1988,
importing rice, sugar, edible
oils as well as steel and iron
rods.
Rostam Azizi, $1 billion
Tanzanian, Telecoms
Tanzania’s second richest
man owes the bulk of his
fortune to his 35% stake in
Vodacom Tanzania, the
country’s largest mobile
phone company with more
than 10 million subscribers.
He also owns Caspian Mining,
a contract mining company
that provides mining services
to giants like BHP Billiton and
Barrick Gold. Caspian Mining
also owns several mining
concessions for gold, copper
and Iron ore in Tanzania.
Other assets include a stake
in Dar es Salaam Port in
which he is a partner with
Hutchison Whampoa and
extensive real estate in
Tanzania, Dubai, Oman and
Lebanon.
source: african leadership magazine