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Nigerians Overtake South Africans On Forbes’ List Of Africa’s Richest People

Nigerians Overtake South Africans On Forbes’ List Of Africa’s Richest People

By Ademola Adeyemo | From This Day

Nigeria has overtaken South Africa by topping the Forbes’ list of Africa’s richest people.

In the list of 50 richest people in  Africa released recently, business mogul, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, topped the list with12 other wealthy Nigerians on the continent’s 50 richest people.

In the latest list, South Africa came second with 11 richest persons, down from 14 it had last year.

Nigeria’s new strength was attributed to its efforts in eradicating the Ebola Virus Disease in the country this year, which Dangote helped to fund.

This year, six new billionaires joined the list, and they are Mr. Femi Otedola, Mr. Tony Elumelu and Chief Orji Uzor Kalu, who are Nigerians, and King Mohammed VI of Morocco,  Ali Wakrim of Morocco, Ahmed Ezz of Egypt and  Mohamed Bensalah also of Morocco who rejoined  the list after dropping off in 2013.

According to the Forbes report, three billionaires who dropped from the list, are Vimal Shah of Kenya who was replaced by his father, Bhimji Depar Shah; Abdulsamad Rabiu of Nigeria dropped below $1 billion due to ceased operations at his floating cement terminal.

Also, South African mining mogul, Desmond Sacco, dropped to a net worth of $680 million, down from $1.4 billion last year, due to a sharp decline in the share price of his mining firm, Assore Group.

The report also stated that Dangote  tops the list with a fortune of $21.6 billion, followed by the  South African luxury goods magnate, Johann Rupert, with an estimated $7.3 billion.

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