Characteristics of the Top 10 Richest Africans

• The top ten richest Africans have diversified businesses
• Most are self-made
• Most are university graduates
• 2 Nigerians,3 South Africans,2 Egyptians,1 Algerian,1 Angolan and 1 Moroccan
• All are above 40. 9  are above 50,the oldest being 82.
• All are married
• Only one is a female

Check the details below:

# 1 Aliko Dangote

Net Worth

$20.8 Billion

CEO, Dangote Group

Age:                                       57

Source Of Wealth:                 cement, sugar, flour, 

Residence:                             Lagos, Nigeria

Citizenship:                           Nigeria

Marital Status:                       Married

Children:                               3

Education:                             Bachelor of Arts/Science @ Al-Azhar University

Heralded by some as the face of the new Nigeria, Africa's richest man is looking beyond cement, sugar and flour -- the three commodities that built his fortune -- to the oil business. In April he announced $9 billion in financing from a consortium of local and international lenders to construct a private oil refinery and fertilizer and petrochemical complex in the country. In August he announced plans to invest $1 billion in commercial rice farming and modern rice mills. His publicly traded Dangote Cement is also grabbing new markets in Africa, with $750 million in new plants planned for Kenya and Niger. He made his first fortune more than three decades ago when he started trading commodities with a loan from his powerful uncle.

#2 Johann Rupert & family

Net Worth

$7.9 Billion

Age                                  64

Source Of Wealth            luxury goods

Residence                       Cape Town, South Africa

Citizenship                      South Africa

Marital Status                  Married

Children                           3

South African luxury goods tycoon and South Africa's richest man, Johann Rupert owes his fortune to Swiss-based Compagnie Financiere Richemont, which owns brands including Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Jaeger-LeCoultre and Montblanc. In September the avid golfer spent $4 million on a buffalo bull, used for breeding buffalo for private game reserves. It's an investment that he hopes will pay for itself through sales of its offspring. His Anthonij Rupert Wines, named after his brother, started being sold in the United States in late 2012.

#3 Nicky Oppenheimer & family

Net Worth

$6.6 Billion

Age                                  69

Source Of Wealth            diamonds

Residence                        Johannesburg, South Africa

Citizenship                      South Africa

Marital Status                  Married

Children                           1

Education                        Bachelor of Arts / Science, Oxford U Christ Church; Master of Arts, Oxford                              University,Christ Church.

For the first time in decades, there is no longer an Oppenheimer at the head of diamond company De Beers. Nicky Oppenheimer sold his 40% of the company to mining behemoth Anglo American in July 2012 for $5.1 billion in cash, bringing Anglo's ownership of DeBeers to 85%. The government of Botswana owns the remaining 15%. Analysts say that De Beers was sold, after 85 years of Oppenheimer family control, because there was no clear successor to Nicky Oppenheimer in the family. Anglo American was founded by Nicky Oppenheimer's grandfather, Ernest. Nicky served on the company's board for 37 years through 2011; he owns an estimated 1.8% stake in Anglo American.

#4 Nassef Sawiris

Net Worth

$5.9 Billion

Age                                    53

Source Of Wealth           Construction

Residence                        Cairo, Egypt

Citizenship                      Egypt

Marital Status                 Married

Children                            4

Education                       Bachelor of Arts / Science, University of Chicago

Nassef Sawiris runs Orascom Construction Industries, Egypt's most valuable publicly-traded company. In early 2013 he moved the company's listing from the Egyptian stock exchange to NYSE Euronext in Amsterdam. He ended a tax dispute with the government of Egypt's then-president Mohamed Morsi in April 2013, agreeing to pay $1 billion between 2013 and 2017. The Morsi government had accused OCI of failing to pay taxes when it sold its cement business to French giant Lafarge in 2007. That dispute held up the filing of a planned tender offer for Orascom Construction's shares by its parent company, Netherlands-based OCI N.V. Last year OCI received commitments for $2 billion in investments, including $1 billion from Bill Gates and three other large U.S. investors.

#5 Mike Adenuga

Net Worth

$4.6 Billion

Age        61

Source Of Wealth          Telcom, oil, Self Made

Residence                      Lagos, Nigeria

Citizenship                     Nigeria

Marital Status                 Married

Children                          7

Education                       Master of Business Administration, Pace University New York 

Mike Adenuga is the founder of Globacom, Nigeria's second-largest mobile phone network, with 24 million subscribers. He also owns Conoil Producing, an oil exploration company which holds the rights to some of Nigeria's most lucrative oil fields. He made his first fortune at age 26 when he returned to Nigeria after studying in the U.S. He took over his mother's sawmill business and distributed lace and Coca-Cola. He made some powerful friends within Nigeria's military and relied on those relationships to corner lucrative state construction contracts. Nigeria's former military president, Ibrahim Babangida, awarded him an oil prospecting license. Adenuga used that to build Conoil Producing and became the first Nigerian to strike oil in commercial quantities. Notoriously private, he rarely talks to the press and travels with a retinue of bodyguards.

#6 Christoffel Wiese

Net Worth

$3.8 Billion

Age        73

Source Of Wealth            Retailing, Self Made

Residence                       Cape Town, South Africa

Citizenship                      South Africa

Marital Status                  Married

Children                           3

Education                        Bachelor of Arts / Science, University of Stellenbosch; LLB,                                                     University of  Stellenbosch

South African retail magnate Christoffel Wiese sells groceries and furniture through stores owned by listed Shoprite Holdings and clothing through Pepkor, a private company that owns seven different discount fashion brands. Shoprite, Africa's largest food retailer, has stores in 17 African countries. He sold more than 7 million Shoprite shares-about 7% of his stake-over the past year at less than half their current value due to an agreement he had entered into with third parties in 2010. Other holdings include a stake in Brait, a listed private equity firm.

#7 Isabel dos Santos

Net Worth

$3.5 Billion

Age                                  41

Source Of Wealth            Investments

Residence                        Luanda, Angola

Citizenship                       Angola

Marital Status                   Married

Children                            3

Education                         Bachelor of Arts / Science, King''s College

Isabel dos Santos, oldest daughter of Angola's longtime president, Jose Eduardo dos Santos, is Africa's richest woman. Though her representatives deny that her holdings have any connection with her father, Forbes research shows that the president has transferred stakes in several companies to his daughter. Holdings in Angola include 25% of Unitel, the largest mobile phone network operator, and a state in Banco BIC. In Portugal she owns 50% of cable TV and Internet firm Zon Optimus and, alongside Portuguese billionaire Americo Amorim, a nearly 7% stake in Portuguese oil and gas firm Galp Energia. Her next bid: opening Sonae hypermarkets in Angola with Portuguese billionaire Belmiro de Azevedo.

#8 Issad Rebrab

Net Worth

$3.2 Billion

Age        70

Source Of Wealth            Food, Self Made

Residence                        Algiers, Algeria

Citizenship                       Algeria

Marital Status                  Married

Children                            5

Issad Rebrab joins the Forbes Billionaires list this year thanks to his thriving $3.5 billion (sales) food business, Cevital, a producer of sugar, vegetable oil and margarine. An accountant by training, one of his clients talked him into investing in the client's metal company in 1971. By 1995 Rebrab had expanded into food, founding Cevital three years later. His five children work at the company. His success is unusual in a country with socialist policies hostile to entrepreneurs and he is Algeria's first-ever billionaire. "Today we [entrepreneurs] are accepted, but not encouraged," he said in a French TV interview. He is the son of militants who fought for Algeria's independence from France.

#9 Mohamed Mansour

Net Worth

$3.1 Billion


Age                                    66

Source Of                         Wealth diversified, Self Made

Residence                         Cairo, Egypt

Citizenship                       Egypt

Marital Status                  Married

Children                           2

Education                        Master of Business Administration, Auburn University

Despite instability in Egypt, Mohamed Mansour and his two brothers, Yasseen and Youssef (also billionaires), are prospering thanks largely to their Mansour Group's Caterpillar tractor and equipment sales in eight African countries and Russia. The company generated more than $6 billion in revenue last year, a 16% increase over 2012, with 60% coming from outside Egypt. To sustain its growth, Mansour Group's Unatrac subsidiary, which holds the Caterpillar business and is run by Mohamed's son Loutfy, signed a $700 million syndicated credit facility last June. In Egypt the company reports strong sales of cigarettes through its Philip Morris unit, and food through its Metro Supermarkets.

#10 Othman Benjelloun

Networth

• $2.8 Billion

Age

82

Source Of Wealth

banking, insurance

Residence

Casablanca, Morocco

Citizenship

Morocco

Marital Status

Married

Children

2

Education

Diploma, Ecole Polytechnique de Lausanne

Through his holding company, FinanceCom, Othman Benjelloun has interests in banking, insurance, and telecom in Morocco. His largest asset is RMA Watanya, an insurer. He is CEO of BMCE Bank, one of the country's largest banks, which is active in more than 15 African countries, generating 44% of BMCE Bank's earnings last year. FinanceCom also runs Paris-based money management firm FinanceCom Asset Management. Last year it launched investment fund FCOM Africa on the French market with initial capital of $28 million (20 million euros). It plans to invest in companies in Nigeria, South Africa, Morocco, Kenya, and Ghana, among other countries.

Source: The Forbes Magazine