What you need to know about 14 Africans on Forbes World’s Billionaires List

The Forbes’ 2021 World’s Billionaires List, which was released on Tuesday, features 14 African billionaires: three Nigerians, five Egyptians, five South Africans and one Algerian.

Aliko Dangote, $11.5 billion (Nigeria)

Dangote, Africa’s richest person, founded and chairs Dangote Cement, the continent’s largest cement producer. He is the 191st wealthiest person in the world.

He owns 85 percent of publicly-traded Dangote Cement through a holding company. The company produces 45.6 million metric tons annually and has operations in 10 countries across Africa. Dangote also owns stakes in publicly-traded salt and sugar manufacturing companies. Dangote Refinery has been under construction since 2016 and is expected to be one of the world’s largest oil refineries once complete.

Nassef Sawiris, $8.3 billion (Egypt)

Sawiris is an investor and a scion of Egypt’s wealthiest family. His most valuable asset is a nearly six percent stake in sportswear maker Adidas. He was ranked 297th on the list.

In December 2020, he acquired a five percent stake in New York-listed firm Madison Square Garden Sports, owner of the NBA Knicks and the NHL Rangers teams. He runs OCI, one of the world’s largest nitrogen fertiliser producers, with plants in Texas and Iowa; it trades on the Euronext Amsterdam exchange. His holdings include stakes in cement giant Lafarge Holcim and Adidas; he sits on the supervisory board of Adidas.

Nicky Oppenheimer and family, $8 billion (South Africa)

Oppenheimer, heir to his family’s fortune, sold his 40 percent stake in diamond firm DeBeers to mining group Anglo American for $5.1 billion in cash in 2012. He is the 308th richest person in the world.

He was the third generation of his family to run DeBeers, and took the company private in 2001. For 85 years until 2012, the Oppenheimer family occupied a controlling spot in the world’s diamond trade. In 2014, Oppenheimer started Fireblade Aviation in Johannesburg, which operates chartered flights with its fleet of 3 planes and 2 helicopters. He owns at least 720 square miles of conservation land across South Africa, Botswana and Zimbabwe.

Johann Rupert and family, $7.1 billion (South Africa)

Rupert is chairman of Swiss luxury goods firm Compagnie Financiere Richemont. He was ranked 358th on the list.

The company is best known for the brands Cartier and Montblanc. It was formed in 1998 through a spinoff of assets owned by Rembrandt Group Limited (now Remgro Limited), which his father Anton formed in the 1940s. He owns a seven percent stake in diversified investment firm Remgro, which he chairs, as well as 25 percent of Reinet, an investment holding co. based in Luxembourg. In recent years, Rupert has been a vocal opponent of plans to allow fracking in the Karoo, a region of South Africa where he owns land.

Mike Adenuga, $6.1 billion (Nigeria)

Adenuga, Nigeria’s second richest man, built his fortune in telecom and oil production. He was ranked 440th on the list. His mobile phone network, Globacom, is the third largest operator in Nigeria, with 55 million subscribers.

His oil exploration outfit, Conoil Producing, operates six oil blocks in the Niger Delta. Adenuga got an MBA at Pace University in New York, supporting himself as a student by working as a taxi driver. He made his first million at age 26 selling lace and distributing soft drinks.

Abdulsamad Rabiu, $4.9 billion (Nigeria)

Rabiu is the founder of BUA Group, a Nigerian conglomerate active in cement production, sugar refining and real estate. He is the 574th richest person in the world.

In early January 2020, Rabiu merged his privately-owned Obu Cement Company with listed firm Cement Co. of Northern Nigeria, which he controlled. The combined firm, called BUA Cement Plc, trades on the Nigerian Stock Exchange; he owns 98.5 percent of it. Rabiu, the son of a businessman, inherited land from his father. He set up his own business in 1988 importing iron, steel and chemicals.

Issad Rebrab and family, $4.8 billion (Algeria)

Rebrab is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Cevital, Algeria’s biggest privately-held company. He is the 589th richest person in the world.

The company owns one of the largest sugar refineries in the world, with the capacity to produce 2 million tons a year. Cevital owns European companies, including French home appliances maker Groupe Brandt, an Italian steel mill and a German water purification company. After serving eight months in jail on charges of corruption, Rebrab was released on January 1, 2020. He denies any wrongdoing.

Naguib Sawiris, $3.2 billion (Egypt)

Sawiris is a scion of Egypt’s wealthiest family. His brother Nassef is also a billionaire. He was ranked 956th on the list. He built a fortune in telecom, selling Orascom Telecom in 2011 to Russian telecom firm VimpelCom (now Veon) in a multibillion-dollar transaction.

He’s chairman of Orascom TMT Investments, which has stakes in an asset manager in Egypt and Italian internet company Italiaonline, among others. Through his Media Globe Holdings, Sawiris owns 88 percent of pan-European pay TV and video news network Euronews. He also developed a luxury resort called Silversands on the Caribbean island of Grenada.

Patrice Motsepe, $2.9 billion (South Africa)

Motsepe, the founder and chairman of African Rainbow Minerals, became a billionaire in 2008 – the first black African on the Forbes list. He was ranked 1,064th on the list.

In 2016, he launched a new private equity firm, African Rainbow Capital, focused on investing in Africa. Motsepe also has a stake in Sanlam, a listed financial services firm, and is the president and owner of the Mamelodi Sundowns Football Club. In 1994, he became the first black partner at law firm Bowman Gilfillan in Johannesburg, and then started a mining services contracting business. In 1997, he bought low-producing gold mine shafts and later turned them profitable.

Mohamed Mansour, $2.5 billion (Egypt)

Mansour oversees family conglomerate Mansour Group, which was founded by his father Loutfy (D.1976) in 1952 and has 60,000 employees. He is the 1,249th richest person in the world.

He established General Motors dealerships in Egypt in 1975, later becoming one of GM’s biggest distributors worldwide. Mansour Group also has exclusive distribution rights for Caterpillar equipment in Egypt and seven other African countries. He served as Egypt’s Minister of Transportation from 2006 to 2009 under the Hosni Mubarak regime. His brothers Yasseen and Youssef, who share ownership in the family group, are also billionaires; his son Loutfy heads private equity arm Man Capital.

Youssef Mansour, $1.5 billion (Egypt)

Youssef is chairman of family-owned conglomerate Mansour Group, which was founded by his father Loutfy (d.1976) in 1952. He was ranked 2,035th on the list.

He oversees the consumer goods division, which includes supermarket chain Metro, and sole distribution rights for L’Oreal in Egypt.

Yasseen Mansour, $1.1 billion (Egypt)

Yasseen is a shareholder in family-owned conglomerate Mansour Group, which was founded by his father Loutfy (d.1976) in 1952. He was ranked 2,524th on the list. He’s chairman of Palm Hills Developments, one of Egypt’s biggest real estate developers.

Michiel Le Roux, $1.1 billion (South Africa)

Le Roux of South Africa founded Capitec Bank in 2001 and owns about an 11 percent stake. He was ranked 2,524th on the list. The bank, which trades on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, targets South Africa’s emerging middle class.

He served as chairman of the board of Capitec from 2007 to 2016 and has continued on as a board member. Le Roux previously ran Boland Bank, a small regional bank in Cape Town’s hinterland.