Forbes’ list of the top ten wealthiest Africans in 2023
Forbes Africa recently released its list of Africa’s wealthiest people, which featured 19 billionaires. ForbesAfrica.com published the list on February 13th, 2023.
Aliko Dangote, as expected, came in first with a net worth of $13.5 billion, followed by Johann Rupert and Family and Nicky Oppenheimer and Family with $10.7 billion and $8.4 billion, respectively.
Dangote’s fortune, which has made him Africa’s richest man for the 12th year in a row, has dropped by $400 million to $13.5 billion. South African Johann Rupert stayed No. 2 with $10.7 billion, down from $11 billion in 2022, as shares of his Compagnie Financière Richemont, which produces Cartier watches and Montblanc pens, clawed back most but not all of last year’s loss. Nicky Oppenheimer, a South African who previously led diamond mining conglomerate DeBeers before selling it to mining conglomerate Anglo American a decade ago, is placed third with an estimated $8.4 billion in wealth.
According to the journal, Africa’s wealthiest individuals have lost a total of $3.1 billion in the last 12 months as a result of a global market slump in 2022.
The projected combined wealth of the 19 billionaires on the continent is $81.8 billion, down from the $84.9 billion held by the 18 African billionaires a year ago. Following a 15% growth the previous year on the back of rising stock values from Nigeria to Zimbabwe, the Forbes list for 2023 has decreased by 3.6%.
The S&P All Africa index fell more than 20% in the first nine months of 2022 before commencing a late-year resurgence that reduced the index’s loss to just 3% from the prior year. Their fortunes sank in lockstep with global equity markets.
The Forbes publication reads in part, “this year’s list sees the return of South Africa’s Christoffel Wiese, who lands at No. 18 with $1.1 billion. Wiese, who was worth more than $6 billion after he sold his bargain retailer, Pepkor, to Steinhoff International for $5.7 billion in 2015, lost his billionaire status two years later when an accounting scandal cratered Steinhoff’s stock. He sued, and in March 2022 collected 7 billion South African rands (about $400 million) from Steinhoff in cash and shares totaling about 5% of publicly traded Pepkor.”
