The Top 10 Richest Women in Africa in 2014

Sharon Wapnick Wapnick is one of the largest individual shareholders for Octodec Investments and Premium Properties. Both companies were founded by her father, but Wapnick's own additional investments made her one of the wealthiest women in Africa. Smart moves in real estate and other investments eventually gave Wapnick a net worth of $43.1 million. Bridgette Radebe Radebe had to do more than just make the right investments in order to obtain her wealth. Through hard work and serious dedication, Radebe founded her own successful mining company in South Africa called Mmakau Mining. The mining company has operations in gold, platinum, coal and so much more. Being the founder of her own mining company came after she rose through the ranks as a mine worker herself. In 2013, Radebe’s net worth was an estimated $100 million. Irene Charnley At the age of 52, Charnley is worth more than $150 million. Today she is the CEO of Smile Telecoms, a telecommunications products company based in Mauritius. It’s a field that is anything but new for Charnley after she spent time serving as the executive director at MTN, Africa’s largest telecom company. Before that, however, she spent more than a decade as a negotiator for South Africa’s National Union of Mineworkers. Wendy Ackerman The retail tycoon is an unstoppable force in South Africa. Ackerman serves as a non-executive director of Pick N Pay Holdings Limited. She currently has a posted net worth of about $190.2 million. Wendy Appelbaum Appelbaum certainly has her father to thank for her easy path to riches. The South African millionaire became the director of her father’s insurance and real estate company Liberty Investors. She skyrocketed onto the list of top 10 wealthiest women in Africa after she sold her shares in the company. She continued building her wealth after becoming the deputy chairman of Women’s Investment Portfolio Limited. As of 2012, she posted a net worth of $259.3 million. Elisabeth Bradley Bradley was born into wealth as the daughter of Albert Wessels, the man responsible for bringing Toyota to South Africa back in 1961. That inherited wealth wasn’t enough to make her one of the top 10 richest women in Africa, however. Bradley was smart with her investments, and she also serves as a board member at companies such as Standard Bank Group, Hilton Hotel and Roseback Inn. In 2008, she saw a massive increase in wealth after Wesco Investments, which she was chairman of, sold its 25 percent stake in Toyota South Africa to Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp. for a whopping $320 million. Bradley took home more than $150 million from the deal. Hajia Bola Shagaya The Nigerian businesswoman is the founder and CEO of Bolmus Group International, which is a diverse Nigerian conglomerate. Shagaya’s company has dealings in oil, real estate and even banking. She also has business ventures across the seas in the U.S. and Europe. She has grown her company in an incredible way all while serving as a board member of Unity Bank PLC. Her hard work has earned her an impressive net worth of about $600 million. Ngina Kenyatta Her name is Ngina Kenyatta, but many know her as Mama Ngina. She is the widow of Kenya’s fourth president, Jomo Kenyatta. Kenyatta lives a very private life now, but she is still highly praised and respected by the people of Kenya. The entire Kenyatta family has business ventures in education, insurance, hospitality, farming, banking, real estate and more. Mama Ngina also serves as a major shareholder in one of the largest privately owned banks in Kenya, the Commercial Bank of Africa. Although she has an undisclosed amount of undeclared wealth, she still has a posted net worth of about $1 billion. Folorunsho Alakija Alakija started her journey to wealth in London by pursuing secretarial studies and fashion design. Eventually, she made her way back to Nigeria and worked hard to become the second-richest woman in Africa. She founded her own tailoring company called Supreme Stitches and has served the likes of former first lady Maryam Babandiga. Before long, her investments in fashion allowed her to make the necessary connections to garner serious holdings in the oil industry as well. Now she has an overall net worth of about $2.5 billion. Isabel Dos Santos With a net worth of a staggering $3.7 billion, dos Santos is Africa’s richest woman as of 2014. She is the daughter of Angola’s longtime president, Jose Eduardo dos Santos. Years of smart investments have made her incredibly wealthy. She is a controlling shareholder in Nos SGPS and owns close to 20 percent of the Portuguese bank Banco BPI. She also owns a quarter of Unitel, the largest mobile phone carrier in Angola.

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