Nigeria has more billionaires than any other country in Africa, including the continent’s wealthiest man and the world’s richest black woman, according to a ranking published this week.
The collective wealth of Nigerians on the rich list compiled by Ventures Africa, a business magazine that “champions African capitalism,” stands at $77.7bn (£49bn), more than double that of South Africans and almost as much as the rest of the continent’s billionaires combined.
This year Nigeria overtook South Africa to become the biggest African economy after a sharp rise in its estimated GDP, partly based on new sectors including telecommunications, manufacturing and the Nollywood film industry.
The two African giants are often seen as arch-rivals and there have been a series of diplomatic flashpoints, most recently when an estimated 81 South Africans were killed by the collapse of a church guesthouse in Lagos in September.
Nigerians’ dominance of the Ventures Africa rich list will do nothing to quell South African anxieties that the country is losing its long-assumed pre-eminence on the continent and missing out on the “Africa rising” phenomenon that has seen spectacular economic growth in many nations over the past decade.
Of 55 billionaires in Africa, Nigeria boasts 23 while South Africa and Egypt each have eight. Their net worth totals $161.7bn, up 12.4 percent from $143.8bn on Ventures Africa’s first list in 2013. Of five new billionaires added this year, four are Nigerian.
Aliko Dangote, founder of Africa’s biggest industrial conglomerate, Dangote Group, remains the continent’s richest man. His net worth has grown to $25.7bn in 2014, a 21% rise from his $20.2bn valuation in 2013.
Second is his compatriot Mike Adenuga, worth $8bn, owner of the Globacom telecommunications company, which has about 30 million subscribers across West Africa. The highest ranking South African, and third overall, is Johann Rupert, chairman and biggest shareholder of the Swiss-based luxury goods company Compagnie Financière Richemont SA.
Read more at: theguardian.com
