African billionaires cast
India’s richest man, Billionaire Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani, is far richer than all the top 20 African billionaires put together.
Ambani with a networth of $106.2 billion according to Forbes as of January 2024 is richer than the $82.4 billion value of all the top 20 African billionaires, from Nigeria’s Aliko Dangote (Africa’s richest) to Femi Otedola and Michiel de Roux both at $1.1 billion each.
In between Dangote and Otedola, are South Africa’s Johann Rupert and family with net worth at $10.1 billion; Nicky Oppenheimer & family (South Africa) with $9.4 billion networth, Egypt’s Nassef Sawiris at $8.7 billion; Mike Adenuga (Nigeria) at $6.9 billion; Abdulsamad Rabiu (Nigeria) at $5.9 billion; Naguib Sawiris (Egypt) at $3.8 billion; Mohamed Mansour(Egypt) at $3.2 billion; Koos Bekker (South Africa) at $2.7 billion; Patrice Motsepe (South Africa) at $2.7 billion; Issad Rebrab & family (Algeria) at $2.5 billion; Mohammed Dewji (Tanzania) at $1.8 billion; Strive Masiyiwa (Zimbabwe) at $1.9 billion; Aziz Akhannouch & family (Morocco) at $1.7 billion; Othman Benjelloun & family (Morocco) at $1.4 billion; Youssef Mansour (Egypt) at $1.3 billion; Yasseen Mansour (Egypt) at $1.2 billion and Christoffel Wiese (South Africa) at $1.2 billion.
Ambani is an Indian billionaire businessman. He is currently the chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries, currently India’s most valuable company by market value.
Ambani is the richest person in Asia and 15th richest in the world. Ambani has had a mixed reputation in his business dealings with section of the media censuring him for allegations of market manipulation, political corruption, cronyism, and exploitation. In 2019, the influential Time magazine listed him as one of the 100 most influential people of 2019, under the “Titans” section. He is known for his bullish approach to business mixed with shrewdness, a trait common in his family of business people.
Despite Dangote’s latest surge in networth as well as surges experienced by other African billionaires ranked by Forbes, the wealth of all the top 20 Africa’s richest persons tends to poverty when compared with the humungous wealth of the world richest man, Frenchman Bernard Arnault, chairman and CEO of luxury goods giant LVMH, who has just surpassed tech genius Elon Musk as the world’s richest person.
Arnault, who oversees an LVMH empire of 75 fashion and cosmetics brands, including Louis Vuitton and Sephora – saw his networth hit $207.6 billion after a $23.6 billion increase on Jan. 26, according to Forbes’ Real Time Billionaires List. Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, now has a net worth of $204.5 billion.
Tesla’s shares fell 13% on Jan. 25, and have been struggling since Musk announced slow growth this year due to a focus on a new, more affordable electric vehicle set for production next year.
This announcement led to $18 billion loss in Musk’s net worth in one day.
LVMH shares, however, rose 12.8% on Jan. 26 following the announcement of higher-than-expected 2023 revenues at EUR86.15 billion ($93.3 billion).
LVMH, the world’s largest luxury group, acquired Tiffany & Co for nearly $16 billion in 2021, marking the luxury industry’s biggest deal.
It also invested in various companies including Netflix and ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company.
Arnault’s five children are all employed by LVMH. He recently named two of his sons to the LVMH Board of Directors. His other children have also served on the board.
