According to Forbes, Aliko Dangote’s fortune rose from $400 million to $13.9 billion, a feat that earned him the top spot for the 13th year in a row.
This feat comes amid Nigeria’s political uncertainty following the February presidential election and a devaluation of the naira in 2023 that negatively hit the rising share price of Dangote Cement.
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Rupert overtook Dangote in June 2023 and as of then, had an estimated net worth of $11.7 billion, according to Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires ranking at 10:00 am ET on June 21.
Dangote’s drop from the top position was traced to the Central Bank of Nigeria’s decision to float the naira abandoning the fixed exchange rate with the U.S. dollar. This action caused the naira, which had been trading around ₦465 per U.S. dollar, to drop about 40% against the U.S. dollar trading about ₦690 to the U.S. dollar four days later.
The new Forbes ranking now places Rupert in second position with $10.1 billion, down from $10.7 billion in 2023 owing to the downward spiral of the shares of his Compagnie Financiere Richemont–maker of Cartier watches and Montblanc pens.
Another South African, Nicky Oppenheimer took the number three spot in the 2024 Forbes African billionaires list with $9.4 billion, up $1 billion from 2023
Oppenheimer formerly ran a diamond mining firm, DeBeers before selling it off to Anglo American, a mining firm a decade ago.
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The 2024 Forbes list also saw the addition of Nigerian billionaire, Femi Otedola who last appeared on the Forbes Africa list in 2017.
According to Forbes, Otedola's entrance can be traced to his 73% stake in Geregu which is worth more than $850 million, about three-quarters of his $1.1 billion fortune.
Otedola was placed in 19th place, a position he shares with another South African billionaire, Michiel Le Roux
This year, South Africa claimed six spots on the ranking, followed by Egypt with five and Nigeria with four. Algeria, Tanzania and Zimbabwe each have one billionaire on the list, while Morocco has two.
Other Nigerians on the list include Mike Adenuga at the fifth position with a net worth of $6.9 billion and Abdulsamad Rabiu at the sixth position with a net worth of $5.9 billion.
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