For the 11th year in a row, Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote has topped Forbes magazine’s list of Africa’s wealthiest people for the year 2022.
Dangote’s fortune has risen from $12.1 billion to an estimated $13.9 billion in the last year.
The boost was attributable to a 30% increase in the stock price of Dangote Cement, his most valuable asset, according to Forbes.
“In the first nine months of 2021, greater demand was driven by a boom in house developments in Nigeria and growth in government infrastructure spending,” according to the magazine.
Abdulsamad Rabiu and Mike Adenuga, two more Nigerian billionaires, were placed 6th and 7th richest people on the continent, with estimated net worths of $7 billion and $6.7 billion, respectively.
Despite the global pandemic, Africa’s billionaires were wealthier than they had been in years, according to the survey.
The continent’s 18 billionaires were collectively worth an estimated $84.9 billion, up 15% from a year ago and the most since 2014, when a bigger number of billionaires–28–were worth a combined $96.5 billion.
Abdulsamad Rabiu of Nigeria, who is now worth $1.5 billion after taking another of his companies public.
Rabiu’s sugar and food company, BUA Foods, was floated on the Nigerian stock exchange in early January 2022.
He and his son owned 96 percent of the company, which had a market capitalization of approximately $2.8 billion at the time. (When the public float is less than 5%, Forbes lowers the value of stakes.)
