Nigerian Aliko Dangote is still Africa’s richest man for the fifth year in a row according to data collected by Forbes Africa despite losing nearly $5 billion off his net worth.
Dangote’s net worth fell from $21 billion last year to $16.7 billion this year due to a drop in the stock price at his Dangote Cement and weaker Nigerian currency, but he was still almost $10 billion richer than the second richest man in Africa, Nicky Oppenheimer of South Africa.
According to Forbes’ Africa 50 richest 2015 released on Wednesday, the net worth of the continent’s wealthiest people dropped by $15 billion to $95.6 billion. Dangote alone accounted for nearly a third of that decline.
“After several years of steady growth in Africa, some sectors of the economy hit a wall. Lower prices for oil and other commodities led to a smaller number of African billionaires than a year ago on Forbes new list of Africa’s 50 Richest – 23 billionaires this year, down from 28,” the report said.
The list features 48 men and 2 women — Isabel Dos Santos of Angola at number 8 and Folorunsho Alakija of Nigeria at number 13.
The oldest person on the list is Morocco’s Miloud Chaabi at 86 with $800 million while the youngest on the list is Tanzania’s Mohammed Dewji at 40 with $1.1 billion.
South Africans replaced Nigerians with the most members on the list this year with four additional billionaires to reach 16, while the oil producing West African nation had three less billionaires on their tally at 10 members.
Other countries represented on the list include Morocco with eight, Egypt with seven, Kenya and Tanzania with three each, while Algeria, Angola and Uganda had one member each.