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Abdulsamad Rabiu has slipped to fourth place among Africa’s richest people after a blockbuster U.S. wholesale deal sharply boosted the fortune of low-profile businessman Nathan Kirsh.
The shift is less about Rabiu losing ground than about Kirsh surging past him in a single stroke.
Kirsh, a 94-year-old billionaire with ties to Eswatini and South Africa, is set to become far wealthier through the planned sale of his food supply company, Jetro Restaurant Depot, to Sysco in a deal valued at $29.1 billion. The transaction is expected to add at least $10 billion to Kirsh’s wealth, dramatically reshaping the rankings of Africa’s richest individuals.
That jump has pushed Rabiu, the Nigerian founder of BUA Group, down the list even as his own fortune has risen this year. Rabiu had been one of Africa’s biggest wealth gainers in 2026, helped by a sharp rally in shares of BUA Cement. But billionaire rankings can change quickly when a major deal creates new wealth on a scale large enough to reorder the field.
Kirsh’s rise stands out because it is being driven by a sale, not just by stock market gains.
Under the terms described in the deal, Sysco will pay $21.6 billion in cash and 91.5 million Sysco shares. Kirsh, who owns about three-quarters of Jetro Restaurant Depot through a holding company, is expected to receive roughly $16 billion in cash before taxes and shares worth about $5.8 billion at the time of the announcement. Forbes estimates his net worth at $17.1 billion after applying a discount linked to the company’s private status and uncertainty around taxes and regulatory approval.
That estimate is enough to move him ahead of Rabiu and South African luxury goods billionaire Johann Rupert.
The change underscores how quickly the continent’s wealth hierarchy can be redrawn. Rabiu’s fortune is closely tied to the market value of his holdings in publicly traded companies, especially BUA Cement. Those gains can be substantial, but they can also fluctuate. Kirsh’s wealth, by contrast, is being reset by a liquidity event that could convert much of his fortune into cash and listed shares once the transaction closes.
Kirsh has spent decades building his business empire largely outside the spotlight. He started with a corn milling business in what was then Swaziland in 1958, using a $2,000 inheritance after his father’s death. He later expanded into wholesale and retail businesses before turning to the United States, where he founded Jetro in Brooklyn in 1976. The company grew into one of the country’s biggest wholesale suppliers for independent restaurants, helped further by its acquisition of Restaurant Depot in 1994.
Last year, Jetro generated $16 billion in revenue and recorded a 30-year streak of EBITDA growth.
For Rabiu, the drop to fourth is still notable. It comes at a time when his own business empire remains one of the most influential in Africa, spanning cement, sugar and other industries. But Kirsh’s deal shows how one major transaction can instantly change the standings, even for billionaires who appeared to be firmly in place.
In the end, Rabiu was not overtaken by decline. He was overtaken by the scale of another man’s deal.
