Aliko Dangote still maintains the Africa’s richest man.
Chairman, Slok Group and Publisher, New Telegraph Newspaper, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, and Nigerian banker, Mr. Tony Elumelu, have swelled the rank of Nigerians on the Forbes billionaire list. Kalu and Elumelu joined the elite club with a tied $1 billion net worth to be 26th richest men in Africa. Kalu is new to Forbes list of Africa’s 50 Richest this year. CONTINUE READING...
He is the founder of Slok Group, a $2.5 billion (annual revenues) conglomerate with interests in shipping, banking, oil trading, manufacturing and the media. Aliko Dangote maintained his lead on the list of Africa’s 50 Richest with a net worth of $21.6 billion.
Twelve other Nigerians, including Kalu, are on the list. Kalu, Elumelu and King Mohammed VI of Morocco are three new billionaires on the list. Forbes is an American business magazine owned by Forbes Inc. Nigeria leads South Africa with three new billionaires topping the 2014 list.
South Africa claims 11 spots, down from 14 in 2013. According to Forbes, Africa’s 50 richest are, as a whole, wealthier than a year ago with their combined net worth of $110.7 billion, representing a 6.7 per cent mark more than in November 2013.
The minimum net worth needed to join this elite group rose to $510 million, up from $400 million a year ago. The two new Nigerian business tycoons on the list of Africa’s 50 Richest, Kalu and Elumelu, have made their mark in their respect businesses.
According to Forbes, Kalu got his start in business at age 19. He then took a $35 loan from his mother and started trading commodities like palm oil, rice, sugar, salt and flour. He diversified into furniture manufacturing and transportation and became a millionaire by the time he was 20.
He hit the big time in the early 80s when the Nigerian military government awarded him lucrative contracts to import and supply arms and ammunition to Nigeria’s military and defense forces. Kalu, a former governor of Abia State, is one of Nigeria’s most successful businessmen. Elumelu, a Nigerian banker, and founder of African investment firm, Heirs Holdings, joins the rich list with a net worth of $1 billion.
Elumelu owns a controlling stake in Transcorp, a listed Nigerian conglomerate that has interests in insurance, healthcare, hotels, power production, energy and agriculture. Elumelu is a proponent of Africapitalism, an economic philosophy that propagates that the African private sector has the power to transform the continent through longterm investments, creating both economic prosperity and social wealth.
He made his fortune when he bought into a struggling Nigerian commercial bank and transformed it into the United Bank for Africa, a leading commercial bank with a presence in 19 African countries. Behind Dangote at number one position with a fortune of $21.6 billion, comes South African luxury goods magnate Johann Rupert, number two for the second year in a row, worth an estimated $7.3 billion.
His Compagnie Financiere Richemont has a stable of luxury brands including Cartier, Montblanc and fashion house Azzedine Alaia. Six newcomers join the list of richest Africans, including Ali Wakrim of Morocco and
Ahmed Ezz of Egypt. Mohamed Bensalah of Morocco rejoins the list after dropping off in 2013.
No comments:
Post a Comment