While African billionaires often fly under the radar of global wealth rankings, this year brings a twist. Our continent's top billionaire claims the 159th spot on the global scale, a leap that piques curiosity. The New Times looks at the top 10 richest individuals in a roster dominated by Nigerians, South Africans, and Egyptians—nations boasting the continent's most dynamic economies.
ALSO READ: Dangote reclaims title of Africa’s richest person
Want to see who’s reshaping the wealth landscape? Dive into our list, featuring insights from Bloomberg and Forbes.
Aliko Dangote – $13.2 billion (Nigerian)
Africa&039;s wealthiest individual, Aliko Dangote, was born in Kano, Nigeria, in 1957. His great-grandfather amassed considerable wealth through trading kola nuts and groundnuts. After losing his father at a young age, Dangote was raised by his maternal grandfather, a trader in building materials.
Dangote’s journey began after graduating from Egypt’s Al-Azhar University with a business degree. Returning to Nigeria, he launched a cement trading business with a loan from his uncle. His entrepreneurial spirit led him from Kano to Lagos, where he expanded his operations. In 1981, he established what is now known as Dangote Group.
Over the years, Dangote diversified his ventures into trading sugar, flour, fish, rice, milk, and iron. Inspired by his 1996 trip to Brazil to study manufacturing, he shifted his focus from trading to local manufacturing, aiming to meet Nigeria's growing consumer demands. In 1999, Dangote embarked on building refineries for salt and sugar, flour mills, and a pasta factory. The following year, he acquired Benue Cement Co. from the Nigerian government and later launched the Obajana Cement Plant, now the largest cement facility in sub-Saharan Africa.
Today, Dangote Group’s publicly traded entities—Dangote Cement, Dangote Sugar, and Nascon Allied Industries—represent approximately one-third of the Nigerian Stock Exchange's market capitalization.
A devout Muslim, Dangote holds the honorific title "Alhaji" for completing the pilgrimage to Mecca. He resides in Lagos.
Johann Rupert and Family – $13.1 billion (South African)
Johann Peter Rupert, born on June 1, 1950, in Stellenbosch, South Africa, is the eldest son of billionaire industrialist Anton Rupert and his wife, Huberte. His father established the tobacco company Rembrandt Group in 1948. After completing his schooling in Stellenbosch, Johann Rupert pursued studies in economics and corporate law at the University of Stellenbosch. However, he left before graduating to take a trainee position with Chase Manhattan in New York.
Rupert's wealth primarily comes from Cie Financiere Richemont, a publicly traded luxury goods manufacturer and retailer that holds the title of the world's largest luxury watchmaker. According to Bloomberg Intelligence data, Rupert and his family investment vehicle, Compagnie Financiere Rupert, own a small portion of Richemont’s Class A shares. These shares are publicly traded, while the family controls all Class B shares, which are non-trading and hold one-tenth of the economic value of Class A shares.
Rupert serves as chairman of the family's investment vehicle. The specific ownership stakes are not publicly disclosed but are attributed to him in this analysis. Additionally, Rupert and his family hold a stake in Remgro, a holding company with investments in over 30 firms, including FirstRand, Unilever South Africa, and RMB Holdings. They own one percent of Remgro’s publicly traded shares and all of its Class B shares through Rembrandt Trust, a trust where Rupert serves as a director.
Moreover, the family owns nearly 25 percent of Reinet Investments, a company established in 2008 to manage Richemont's stake in British American Tobacco, through the Anton Rupert Trust, as detailed in the company's 2023 annual report.
Nicky Oppenheimer – $11.1 billion (South African)
Nicholas Frank Oppenheimer, born on June 8, 1945, in Johannesburg, South Africa, is the third generation of the renowned Oppenheimer mining dynasty. His grandfather, Ernest Oppenheimer, established Anglo American in 1917 to explore the vast gold reserves of the Witwatersrand near Johannesburg.
Oppenheimer pursued studies in politics, economics, and philosophy at Oxford University. In 2012, he sold the family's 40 percent stake in De Beers, the world's leading diamond producer, to Anglo American for 5.2 billion dollars. Despite this significant divestment, Oppenheimer continues to hold private equity investments across Africa, Asia, the United States, and Europe through Stockdale Street in London and Tana Africa Capital in Johannesburg.
He resides in Johannesburg with his wife and also maintains a country estate in Berkshire, England.
Nassef Sawiris – $9.2 billion (Egyptian)
Born January 19, 1961, in Cairo, Egypt, as the youngest of three sons of Yousiriyya and Onsi Sawiris. His father founded a construction company in 1950, which grew into one of Egypt’s largest contractors by the time Nassef was eight, focusing on major infrastructure projects along the upper Nile.
Sawiris’s wealth is anchored by a 39 percent stake in OCI, a leading fertilizer group, held directly and through his Netherlands-based holding company, Capricorn Capital BV.
OCI's origins trace back to Orascom Construction, founded by his father. Sawiris also holds a 7 percent voting stake in Adidas, managed through Cayman Islands-based Elian Corporate Trustee, and owns 5 percent of Arkema, a specialty materials producer, and 6 percent of MSG Sports, which oversees the New York Knicks and Rangers.
A Coptic Christian, Sawiris lives with his wife and four children.
Natie Kirsh – $9.14 billion (South African)
He was born in 1932 and raised in Potchefstroom, South Africa, where his family ran a sorghum-malt business. He attended the University of Witwatersrand and began his fortune with a modest 1,200-pound inheritance from his father.
Kirsh's wealth primarily stems from his 75 percent ownership in Jetro Holdings, a New York-based company overseeing two major U.S. wholesale grocery chains: Jetro Cash & Carry and Restaurant Depot. According to a 2019 Fitch credit report, the combined businesses generate over $10 billion in annual revenue.
Jetro and Restaurant Depot operate as sister companies, with their value calculated using a multiple of enterprise value-to-sales from industry peers such as Costco, Kroger, Metro, and Loblaw.
Through his Kirsh Group, he also controls 52 percent of Abacus Property Group, a Sydney-based publicly traded real estate investment trust, as per a September 2022 stock exchange filing.
Kirsh's real estate holdings span four continents, including iconic properties like Tower 42 in London and Birkenhead Point in Sydney. These assets are valued using the income capitalization method and recent market comparisons from real estate firms such as Savills, Knight Frank, and the National Australia Bank.
Naguib Sawiris – $7.08 billion (Egyptian)
He was born on June 15, 1954, in Egypt as the eldest of three sons to Yousiriyya and Onsi Sawiris. He earned a Master's in technical administration from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.
The bulk of Sawiris' fortune is held in cash and private assets, largely stemming from his sale of a 20 percent stake in Russian telecom company Vimpelcom for nearly $4.1 billion between 2011 and 2012.
This stake was acquired as part of a 2010 deal where Sawiris sold most of his telecom assets, including Italy’s Wind Telecomunicazioni and 51 percent of Cairo-based Orascom Telecom Holding, for $1.5 billion plus Vimpelcom shares. He later revealed to Bloomberg that he made a profit of about $300 million from the VimpelCom deal.
Most of Sawiris’ investments are managed through Luxembourg-based holding entities, which he controls alongside his father, Onsi. His stake in these holding companies is not disclosed, but Naguib’s share is estimated to be around 70 percent, partly based on the ownership structure of another family asset, OCI, a publicly traded fertilizer company controlled by his father and brother, Nassef.
Sawiris also owns 37 percent of publicly traded Orascom Investment Holding through OTMT Acquisition Sarl. He acquired 70 percent of La Mancha Resources in 2012 for $492 million, investing in gold assets. His holdings include stakes in publicly traded gold miners like Endeavor Mining, Evolution Mining, and Golden Star Resources. In 2018, he declared himself one of the largest investors in gold mining worldwide.
A Coptic Christian, Sawiris is married with four children and resides in Cairo.
Mike Adenuga – $6.6 billion (Nigerian)
Adenuga is Nigeria’s second-richest man, amassing his wealth through telecommunications and oil. He earned an MBA from Pace University in New York, where he worked as a taxi driver to support himself during his studies.
Adenuga’s mobile network, Globacom, is Nigeria's second-largest operator, serving over 60 million subscribers. His oil company, Conoil Producing, manages six oil blocks in the Niger Delta. In addition, Globacom spearheaded the construction of Glo-1, a 6,100-mile-long submarine internet cable connecting the U.K. to Ghana and Portugal.
Adenuga owns 74 percent of the publicly traded gasoline company Conoil and holds just under 6 percent of Nigerian bank Sterling Financial Holding. At 71, he is married and the father of seven children.
Abdulsamad Rabiu – $4.7 billion (Nigerian)
He is the founder of BUA Group, a Nigerian conglomerate with ventures in cement production, sugar refining, and real estate. At 64, Rabiu oversees one of Nigeria's most prominent industrial empires.
In January 2020, he merged his privately-owned Obu Cement company with Cement Co. of Northern Nigeria, which he controlled. The resulting entity, BUA Cement Plc, is now publicly traded on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, with Rabiu owning 98.2 percent. He also controls 95 percent of BUA Foods, a publicly traded food conglomerate.
Coming from a business-oriented family, Rabiu inherited land from his father but established his own path in 1988 by starting a company that imported iron, steel, and chemicals.
Mohamed Mansour – $3.3 billion (Egyptian)
Mohamed Mansour, helms the Mansour Group, a family conglomerate founded by his father, Loutfy Mansour, in 1952. At 76, Mansour oversees a business empire with over 60,000 employees.
In 1975, he secured General Motors dealerships in Egypt, eventually becoming one of GM’s largest distributors globally. The Mansour Group also holds exclusive distribution rights for Caterpillar equipment in Egypt and seven other African nations.
Mansour, who holds dual Egyptian and U.K. citizenship, served as Egypt’s Minister of Transportation from 2006 to 2009 under the Hosni Mubarak regime. His brothers, Yasseen and Youssef, who co-own the family business, are also billionaires, while his son Loutfy leads the group's private equity arm, Man Capital.
Mansour’s journey to success began humbly—he worked as a busboy in a pizza parlor while attending North Carolina State University. He later earned a Master of Business Administration from Auburn University. Married with two children, Mansour’s story reflects a blend of persistence, family legacy, and global influence.
Koos Bekker – $2.9 billion (South African)
Koos Bekker is celebrated for his role in transforming Naspers, once a South African newspaper publisher, into a global e-commerce investor and cable TV giant.
His visionary leadership in 2001 led Naspers to acquire a third of Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings for a reported $34 million—widely regarded as one of the most successful venture investments ever made.
In 2019, Naspers spun off some assets into two publicly traded companies: MultiChoice Group, which focused on entertainment, and Prosus, which holds the Tencent stake. Despite selling down its stake over the years, Naspers still holds 25 percent of Tencent today.
Bekker retired as CEO of Naspers in 2014 but returned as chairman in 2015. Outside of business, his nearly 600-acre Babylonstoren estate in South Africa's Western Cape, with buildings dating back to 1690, boasts a farm, orchard, vineyard, and more.
Bekker holds a Master of Business Administration from Columbia Business School and an LLB from the University of Witwatersrand. He is married and has two children.