Bloomberg Counters Forbes, Rates Dangote Africa’s Richest Man, Elon Musks Retains World Top Spot

Bloomberg Billionaires Index (BBI) has declared that the President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, remains the richest man in Africa, despite the volatility of Nigerian currency against the dollar.

In its daily top billionaire lists released on Tuesday, Bloomberg revealed that Dangote with a wealth of $15.6 billion topped other Africans in the Index.

Other Africans listed in the latest top 500 world billionaires for the year 2023 include Johann Rupert and family of South Africa, now worth $13.3 billion, while Nicky Oppenheimer of South Africa, Nassef Sawiris of Egypt, Natie Kirsh of South Africa, and Naguib Sawiris are also worth $9.0 billion, $7.47 billion, $7.37billion and $5.93 billion respectively. These are the only five other Africans that made the list.

Elon Musk and Bernard Arnault are the top two richest in the world with $219 billion and $194 billion, respectively, in their kitties, while Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates followed respectively with $151 billion and $130 billion. Larry Ellison was the fifth richest with $130 billion on the world’s billionaires’ chart.

Recall that Forbes Magazine had announced on Friday, June 16, that Rupert displaced Dangote as Africa richest man, who has held that title consecutively for 10 years.

Forbes real-time Global Billionaires Ranking pegged Rupert’s net worth at $12 billion and Dangote’s at $10.8 billion.

It was gathered that Dangote’s net worth took a massive dip due to the naira depreciation caused by the Central Bank of Nigeria’s decision to auction the dollar at a relatively lower rate than the official market price.