2023: Forbes released its 2023 list of Africa's richest people. Of the 54 countries on the continent, only seven countries have 19 billionaires (living or doing most of their business in Africa) on the list. Total net worth reached $81.5 billion, down from $84.9 billion a year ago.
In third place on the list is the Nicky Oppenheimer family, with a fortune of $8.4 billion. The South African family controlled the global diamond industry for more than 100 years, once accounting for 90% of the market, creating the world's largest diamond mining company, De Beers (now sold to Anglo American), and the slogan "a diamond is forever" is deeply rooted in people's hearts. The John Rupert family,
also from South Africa, ranked second for the second year in a row with a fortune of $10.7 billion. Richemont is the second largest luxury goods group in the world after LVMH, with many famous brands such as Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Vacheron Constantin, Jaeger-LeCoultre and Montblanc. In the first nine months of fiscal 2023 (ending December 31, 2022), sales increased by 18% year-on-year. Aliko Dangote, a 66-year-old
Nigerian industrialist and founder and chairman of the Dangote Group , said that despite a $400 million drop in wealth, But it remained the richest man in Africa for the 12th consecutive year with $13.5 billion (about 91.5 billion yuan). Founded in the 1980s and headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria
, Dangote Group owns ports and cement factories in many countries, as well as real estate, telecommunications, energy, steel, salt, sugar, flour, fertilizer and other businesses, and is one of the largest industrial groups in Africa. Dangote was born to a well-to-do family in the northern Nigerian city of Kano
in 1957. His father died when he was 8 years old. He lived with his grandfather, Sanusi Cantata, who became one of the richest people in the area by buying and selling rice, oats and other food commodities. Under the influence of what he saw and heard, he became more and more interested in doing business. When he was in primary school, he found that his classmates around him liked to eat candy, so he went to buy candy boxes and sold them separately to earn some pocket money. After graduating
from Al-Azhar University in Egypt, one of the oldest universities in the world, with a major in business, Dangote decided to start his own business and borrowed $3,000 from his uncle to set up a small company specializing in agricultural products. He imports rice and sugar from Thailand and Brazil, respectively, and sells them to local consumers at affordable prices. It took only three months to earn the first pot of gold in his life.
On one occasion, Dangote went to Brazil to investigate business and was deeply touched by the rapid development of manufacturing industry. At that time, most of Nigeria's consumer goods were heavily dependent on foreign imports, and he was determined to solve this problem, investing in the construction of flour processing plants, sugar refineries, salt plants, and shifting from trade to manufacturing.
In the process, Dangote also realized that the domestic infrastructure was very backward, and cement was the most basic product of infrastructure, so he began to enter the cement business in 2003. Starting from the import and repackaging business, after obtaining the production qualification, three large cement plants were established in just a few years, making it the largest cement producer in Nigeria.
But he was not satisfied with this, and invested US $4 billion to build cement equipment factories in Cote d'Ivoire and US $115 million to build cement factories in Cameroon, Zambia, Senegal, Tanzania and South Africa. With the construction of residential buildings and schools all over the country, the demand for cement is rising, and wealth is naturally flowing. As a result, Dangote won the title of "African Cement King", and the cement industry once contributed 80% of its wealth.
According to the 2022 Top 100 List of Global Cement Production Capacity, Dangote Cement has a production capacity of 51.6 million tons, ranking 17th, and is one of the only two African companies in the top 50 (the other is Algeria Cement Group, which ranks 43rd).
While the cement business has been successful, Dangote has also made efforts in many fields. Including the $19 billion construction of a major oil refinery that will be able to supply all the gasoline, diesel and aviation fuel used in the West African country. In March last year, a US $2.5 billion fertilizer plant covering an area of 500 hectares was officially launched, which can produce 3 million tons of urea annually. The plant, the second largest in the world, will make Nigeria continent's leading urea producer and help end the country's dependence on food imports.
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