Top 20 Richest People in Africa 2022 - Africa's Billionaires Explored

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60 years old Yasseen Mansour is a shareholder in the family-owned conglomerate Mansour Group - the distributor of Gauloises cigarettes. He is involved in various businesses such as GM vehicles and Caterpillar equipment.

After studying Bachelor of Arts/Science at George Washington University, he decided to pursue his career in the family business.

Mansour is the chairman of Palm Hills Developments, Egypt's one of the biggest real estate developers.

Throughout his career, Yasseen has handled various companies under various sectors and has displayed the capability to grasp the business to its ethics.

Besides money matters, he is keen on social work and poverty-lifting programs. Yasseen served as an active board member of the National Cancer Institute and Secretary-General of the Future Foundation.

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Business magnate Othman Benjelloun is the CEO of BMCE Bank of Africa, which he co-founded in 1995. The bank has a presence in Africa's 20 countries.

Benjelloun's total wealth of $1.2 Billion comes with the assistance of his father, who was a shareholder in RMA, a Moroccan insurance company.

Othman converted RMA insurance into Morocco's leading company and later had a stake in French multinational company Orange Telecommunications.

Furthermore, his construction company FinanceCom International handles ambitious projects such as building Africa's tallest 55-story skyscraper to host 200 Chinese companies.

Othman married Moroccan General Mohamed Meziane's daughter Leila Mezian - a renowned African physicist.

Despite getting old, the 91-years-old businessperson is still active in his service - and has no further plans to retire. It shows how dedicated he is to the business.

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Youssef Mansour is the older brother of Yasseen Mansour and the part-owner of Egypt's conglomerate Mansour Group. The business tycoon is one of the founding members of the American Egyptian Chamber of Commerce.

Besides family business, Mansour has involved himself in distributing consumer goods and supermarket chain Metro. Youssef started L'Oreal's distribution in Egypt, which became insanely successful.

His wealth is diversified, and more than half of it is self-made. Mansour is the father of five children; he currently resides in Cairo, Egypt, with his wife.

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Africa's youngest Billionaire Mohammed (Mo) Gulamabbas Dewji, is leading the MeTL group of Tanzania. His father founded the company in the 1970s, which primarily served food and beverages.

He returned to Tanzania after finishing his bachelor's degree in international business and finance at Georgetown University.

When Mo became the owner of the MeTL group, he diverted the company into different sectors such as agriculture, trading, finance, real estate, insurance, etc.

MeTL now operates in six African countries, and he has ambitions to expand the business worldwide.

Moreover, Dewji stepped into the politics of Tanzania and became a parliament member from 2005-2015. After he retired from Legislative, he was once kidnapped in 2018 and held hostage for nine days, but thankfully nothing happened.

The young Billionaire has assured to donate his half wealth to the Giving Pledge Foundation. Mo wants the upliftment of the deprived people of Africa.

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The banking revolution was imminent in South Africa; the middle-class people didn't find appropriate banks with targeted financial plans.

Michiel Le Roux took advantage of this, established Capitec Bank in Stellenbosch, and kept 11% of its stake. Capitec Bank's shares are traded on Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

His net worth boomed after the Pandemic began, and Michiel Le Roux only gained $141 million in 27 days. Le Roux worked as the bank's Chairman for nine years, but after that, he decided to serve as a board member.

Michiel is a self-made Billionaire; in the starting phase of his career, he established a small bank called Boland. His ambitions grew; he founded Capitec and took it to the stock exchange; now, it has 800 branches and 13,000 employees.

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Did you know the prime minister of Morocco, Aziz Akhannouch, is one of the wealthiest people on the African continent?

Aziz is the majority owner of a multibillion-dollar conglomerate Akwa Group. His father, Ahmed Wakrim, founded the company in 1932.

His $1.9 Billion net worth derives from heritage and other diverse businesses. Akwa has always supported his wife Salwa Idrissi to become an independent woman. Her company has franchises for Gap, Gucci, and Ralph Lauren in Morocco.

Akwa has most interests in petroleum, gas, and chemicals - the products are traded publicly through Afriquia Gaz and Maghreb Oxygene.

Akhannouch started his political career in 2003 - and became finance minister in 2013. Slowly, he gathered massive public support because his company donated $103.5 million to the Covid-19 management fund.

In 2021, his party won a majority of seats, and Aziz became the head of the government of Morocco.

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Retail Businessman Mohamed Al-Fayed is massively popular for his unique style, frequent appearances with celebrities, and social media engagements.

The 93-years-old Egyptian Billionaire is entirely self-made and found his fortunes when he migrated to the United Kingdom.

At first, he opened a shipping company with his brother and then slowly expanded his business outside Egypt. Mohamed invested in the Ritz Paris Hotel and Harrods department store based in Brompton Road, London.

He didn't stop in retail but also invested in sports. Al-Fayed bought London-based football club Fulham F.C. in 1997.

A breakthrough in his business career came when he sold Harrods to Qatar for $2.4 Billion. His net worth grew more after investing heavily in real estate and garments.

In 1997, alongside the British people, Mohamed suffered a significant loss. His son Dodi died in a car crash with Princess Diana.

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Koos Bekker transformed publishing company Naspers into a conglomerate. During his career, he diversified it, listed on Johannesburg Stock Exchange and London Stock Exchange.

Bekker made Naspers a global internet group and one of the largest technology investors in the world. Through the help of Dutch multinational Prosus, Naspers expanded its service in Television and Internet sections.

Further, the businessperson helped the company establish subsidiary companies such as Media 24 and takealot.com.

In 2015, he sold nearly 75% of his stake after retiring from company CEO. Koos' net worth hit an all-time high after Naspers sold a 2% stake in Tencent in 2018.

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The London-based Zimbabwean Billionaire Strive Masiyiwa has made tremendous wealth through the telecommunications business.

Masiyiwa owns a 50% stake in the publicly-traded Econet Wireless Zimbabwe, and he played a significant role in establishing the mobile phone network Econet Wireless Zimbabwe by defying the government.

He has also opened investment companies in other African nations, such as Burundi and Lesotho. Strive's multinational company Econet has diversified into Fintech, Wireless communications, Fiber Optics, and Satellite services.

Among our top 20 Billionaire list, Masiyiwa has more global influence than others. He has been a board member of globally renowned companies such as Unilever, Netflix, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Bank of America, etc.

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Loutfy Mansour established a multinational company, Mansour Group, which later became a family conglomerate. His three sons, Yasseen, Youssef, and Mohamed, are currently the part-owners of the group.

All of them are successful businesses and have made immense wealth through their own business. Mohamed Mansour established the General Motors dealership in Egypt, and it has become GM's largest distributor in the world.

Mansour had made such a massive impact on the transportation of Egypt that Hosni Mubarak selected him as the transportation minister from 2006 to 2009.

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Patrice Motsepe was the first black billionaire on the Forbes magazine list. He became an elite businessman and rose to fame after 2008.

The businessman is the founder and chairperson of the South African gold mining company African Rainbow Minerals.

Motsepe started his career as the first black partner at Bowman Gilfillan law firm in Johannesburg. After that, he operated mining services contract businesses.

South Africa's Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) laws turned out to be a fortune for Patrice because a mining company must reserve 26% of the stake for blacks if they have to acquire a government license.

Besides African Rainbow Minerals, Motsepe has investments in Finance, Football, and Advocacy group. He is married to South Africa's one of the wealthiest women Precious Moloi - who has around $300 million net worth.

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Known for expanding Orascom Investment Holdings, Naguib is the descendant of the Sawiris family and son of Onsi Sawiris.

He started the business after completing a Bachelor of Arts/Science at the Swiss Federal Polytechnical Institute. In 1979, Naguib brought different ideas to grow and diversify the family conglomerate.

Sawiris sold Orascom Telecom in 2011 to Russian telecom firm Veon and acquired billions through the deal. After the deal's completion, his net worth boomed, and Naguib was listed as a billionaire in 2013.

Furthermore, Sawiris has helped the liberal political party of Egypt - The Free Egyptians. And he also showed solidarity with the Syrian refugees in the 2015 crisis. Despite his efforts to settle the refugees on the Greek and Italian Islands, his request was denied due to several unforeseen challenges.

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The wealthiest person in Swaziland, Nathan Kirsh, established Jetro Holdings under Kirsh groups and ran his multinational company in the U.S., Israel, Eswatini, Australia, and the U.K.

He is a self-made billionaire on this list who owns 70% of the cash and carry operation shares under Jetro Holdings.

Kirsh has involved himself in controversial dealings such as buying stakes of Magal Security Systems - a part of Israel Aerospace Industries. However, after a few years, he sold most of the percentage to keep him at bay.

The businessman expanded wholesale food distribution in apartheid South Africa and took it into the supermarket and commercial properties. Nathan owns London's tallest 52-story building - Tower 42, which is the office of 50 international companies.

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The founder and CEO of Cevital industrial group Issad Rebrab have built an empire in steel, manufacturing, food, agribusiness, and electronics. His company is the largest private organization in Algeria.

Rebrab had not stepped into an industrial business career until 1971. At that time, one of his clients suggested Issad buy the stake in metallurgic construction company Sotecom.

The suggestion worked, and later he established his company Cevital. The company is now the largest manufacturer of sugar refineries in the world.

With $5.1 billion of net worth, the billionaire is also present in various businesses in France, Germany, and Italy. Rebrab is the son of an activist who fought for Algeria's independence from France.

Despite Issad having denied any wrongdoings, he was charged with corruption and had to serve eight months in jail.

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Our first Nigerian on the list is Mike Adenuga, a petroleum industrialist and telecommunications pioneer of Nigeria.

Adenuga hadn't dreamt of becoming a billionaire until he went for studies in New York. Before graduating from Peace University in Business Administration, he worked as a Taxi Driver to sustain.

Mike started lace and distributing soft drinks after he returned to Nigeria. The table turned, and he became a millionaire at 26 years. After that, he acquired an oil-drilling license and established the first commercial indigenous oil drilling company.

Mike has made a presence in telecommunications through his company Globacom. Nigeria's second-largest telecom has markets in other African countries like Ghana, Benin, and Cote d'Ivoire.

Further, he has bought stakes in Equitorial Trust Bank and Consolidated Oil Company.

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Abdul Samad Rabiu inherited land from his industrialist businessman father, Isyaku Rabiu. He invested in the land and founded the BUA Group of industries.

After setting up his business, the businessman started importing iron, steel, and chemicals to Nigeria. His net worth soared after producing steel and rolling mills.

The conglomerate is present in Cement Production, Sugar refineries, and real estate. Rabiu owns 98.5% of BUA Cement Plc, which is listed on the Nigerian stock exchange.

Abdul was born in a huge joint family; he has 42 siblings, including Nafiu Rabiu and Rabiu Rabiu, the chairman of IRS Airlines.

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The youngest son of Onsi Sawiris, Nassef Sawiris, is Egypt's richest man. He is an investor and a descendant of Egypt's wealthiest family.

Although Nassef inherited wealth from his father, he has made his business empire through investments in companies such as Madison Square Garden Sports and Orascom construction.

Sawiris owns a 6% stake in sports maker Adidas and is also a supervisory board member. Onsi has established OCI, one of the world's largest nitrogen fertilizer producers.

Interested in sports, he teamed up with Fortress Investment Group to purchase Premier League club Aston Villa F.C.

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South African entrepreneur Johann Rupert inherited millions of wealth from his father and family; however, he turned it into billion dollars.

Johann is chairman of Swiss luxury goods firm Compagnie Financiere Richemont. It produces and sells jewelry, watches, leather goods, and other luxury items.

Rupert owns a 25% stake in Reinet, an investment holding company in Luxemburg. The entrepreneur first became a billionaire in 2013 and nearly lost half of his wealth during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Johann has interests in nature and is a committed conservationist; he has pledged to give wealth to forest conservation.

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Another South African billionaire on our list is the DeBeers diamond corporation heir. Nicky Oppenheimer was the third of his generation to operate DeBeers.

The Oppenheimer family had control over almost 85 years in the world diamond trade until Nicky started the company's privatization in 2001.

DeBeers is famous for subsidiary companies such as Forevermark and Diamond Trading Company. Oppenheimer has also started Fireblade Aviation company which operates chartered flights.

Nicky is a social worker; he donated more than $110 million to support small businesses in South Africa. Also, he is a renowned nature conservationist; he owns about 720sq miles of land in South Africa, Botswana, and Zimbabwe. 

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Africa's richest man Aliko Dangote registered the Dangote group in 1977 as a small trading firm. He inherited the footprints of his father and grandfather, who used to sell rice and oats in Kano, Nigeria's second-largest city.

Then he started trading commodities and bagged cement all over the continent. After a few years, he established the Dangote Cement factory, which can produce 48.6 million metric tons annually.

It is one of the giant cement factories operating across ten African countries. Besides cement, the Dangote group is involved in manufacturing chemical fertilizers, oil refineries, salt factories, and sugar mills.

Dangote's $14 billion net worth comes from 85% of publicly traded shares of his cement factory and holds 70% of the soft drinks and breweries market of Nigeria.