With a $12.2 billion net worth, billionaire Alike Dangote has kept his top spot ahead 20 others in Africa’s richlist by Forbes magazine.
This is the sixth time the Nigerian industrialist will be holding tight to that topmost position on the continent as other Nigerian billionaire slip down the ladder.
His agelong rival Mike Adenuga comes fifth this time, and 67-year-old oil baroness
Folorunsho Alakija, with just over $1.6 billion comes 15th. The likes of Femi Otedola and others have fizzled out thanks to global oil crisis that sapped their financial juice.
On the continent, the first runner up on the 2017 billonaire race is Nicky Oppenheimer, a South African rock candy dealer worth $7.7 billion.
In the testosterone-dominated world of Africa’s billionaire, two women have been striving to hold their own:
Isabel dos Santos and Alakija. Santos is the daughter of Angola’s ex-President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who stepped down in 2017. She is worth $2.7 billion.
Last year, an analysis by Forbes revealed that the world’s top ranking billionaires are those who diversify their business. That probably explain the reason Dangote has a hold of the first spot.
The industrialist has no fewer than 18 businesses, cutting across manufacture, commodities, telecommunications, and mining.