African Vibes Magazine’s 2018 African Billionaires List

When it comes to African Billionaires, there are some usual suspects that make the list every year. Unfortunately, 2018 closed on a very bumpy note in the equities market and for many billionaires, this among other things resulted in some considerable loses in fortunes and some billionaires dropping off the list altogether.

The list dropped by 7 from 31 African billionaires to 24. A few billionaires still managed to grow their fortunes. Most Notably Nigeria’s Mike Adenugu who grew his fortunate the most with a 3.2 billion increase over his 2017 fortune.

Isabel Dos Santos remained Africa’s richest woman, Mohammed Dewji is still Africa’s youngest billionaire, and South Africa’s Elon Musk maintained the number one spot as the richest African on the list.

African Countries represented on the Billionaire list

By the end of 2018, South Africa had dropped 5 billionaires from the previous year. They closed with 6 billionaires, same as Egypt which dropped 2 billionaires from its 2017 list.

Nigeria maintained its 3 billionaires while last year’s newcomer from Zimbabwe still held his own. The other countries represented are Angola, Algeria, Ethiopia, Sudan, Swaziland and Zimbabwe with their first Billionaire.

African Billionaire Age Distribution

There are 3 billionaires in their forties, 5 in their fifties, 7 in their sixties, 6 in their seventies and 3 in their eighties. Africa’s youngest Billionaire is still Mohammed Dewji from Tanzania at Age 42.

Methodology

The African Billionaires list is a snapshot of wealth taken on January 1, 2019. It is based on the Forbes Real-time billionaire wealth calculator. The calculation is derived from stock prices and exchange rates from around the world used to calculate net worths. Some fortunes change from day to day due to fluctuations in the market.

The list is based on individuals rather than multigenerational families who share large fortunes, though included is wealth belonging to a billionaire’s spouse and children if the current list member is the founder of the fortune. In that case, you’ll see “& family” on the list. Also included are married couples who built fortunes and businesses together.

It was an interesting year for African billionaires as some fortunes shrunk and others grew. So let’s look at who is left on the list and how they did in spite of the rough year-end.

2018 African Billionaire’s List

Picture	Africa Rank	Forbes Rank	Name	Net Worth	Age	Wealth Source	Hometown/ Residence
	1	#35	Elon Musk	$21.9 B	47	Tesla Motors	South Africa / United States
	2	#125	Aliko Dangote	$10.5 B	61	Self Made, cement, sugar, flour	Nigeria
	3	#149	Mike Adenuga	$8.7B	65	Telecom, Oil	Nigeria
	4	#180	Nicky Oppenheimer	$7.6 B	73	Diamonds	South Africa
	5	#217	Patrick Soon-Shiong	$6.6 B	66	Pharmaceuticals	South Africa / United States
	6	#240	Nassef Sawiris	$6 B	57	Construction, Chemicals	Egypt
	7	#316	Johann Rupert	$5.2 B	68	Luxury goods	South Africa
	8	#413	Nathan Kirsh	$4.4 B	86	Retail, Real estate	Swaziland
	9	#519	Issad Rebrab	$3.8 B	75	Food	Algeria
	10	#572	Naguib Sawiris	$3.5 B	64	Telecom	Egypt
	11	#758	Haim Saban	$2.8 B	73	TV network, Investments	Egypt / United States
	12	#955	Strive Masiyiwa	$2.3 B	58	Telecom	Zimbabwe
	13	#958	Koos Bekker	$2.3 B	66	Media, Investments	South Africa
	14	#964	Mohamed Mansour	$2.3 B	70	Diversified	Egypt
	15	#1033	Isabel dos Santos	$2.2 B	45	Investments	Angola
	16	#1107	Aziz Akhannouch	$2 B	58	Petroleum, Diversified	Morocco
	17	#1110	Patrice Motsepe	$2 B	56	Mining	South Africa
	18	#1317	Othman Benjelloun	$1.7 B	86	Banking, Insurance	Morocco
	19	#1387	Folorunsho Alakija	$1.6 B	68	Oil	Nigeria
	20	#1405	Mohamed Al Fayed	$1.6 B	89	Retail, Investments	Egypt
	21	#1441	Mohammed Dewji	$1.5 B	43	Diversified	Tanzania
	22	#1463	Yasseen Mansour	$1.5 B	57	Diversified	Egypt
	23	#1783	Mohammed Ibrahim	$1.2 B	72	Communications	Sudan / United Kingdom
	24	#1786	Mohammed Ibrahim	$1.2 B	73	Self Made, diversified	Egypt