Table of Contents
Africa's ten wealthiest people are worth $121.3 billion between them, and Aliko Dangote accounts for more than a quarter of it on his own.
Every figure in this ranking comes from Forbes' real-time billionaires tracker as of Sept. 1, 2026. Those numbers move with share prices and exchange rates and change daily, so the order below reflects that day rather than a fixed annual list. Forbes publishes its full Africa ranking once a year, most recently in March 2026, and the comparisons in this piece are measured against it.
The Nigerian industrialist stands at $31.4 billion, ahead of Nathan Kirsh of Eswatini on $19.2 billion and Johann Rupert of South Africa on $17.5 billion. Those three hold 56% of the group's combined wealth.
Patrice Motsepe is no longer among them. The African Rainbow Minerals founder sits at $3.6 billion, behind Capitec founder Michiel le Roux on $3.7 billion, which leaves him eleventh.
Africa's ten wealthiest people are worth $121.3 billion between them, and Aliko Dangote accounts for more than a quarter of it on his own.
The Nigerian industrialist stands at $31.4 billion on Forbes' daily billionaires ranking as of Sept. 1, ahead of Nathan Kirsh of Eswatini on $19.2 billion and Johann Rupert of South Africa on $17.5 billion. Those three hold 56% of the group's combined wealth.
Patrice Motsepe is no longer among them. The African Rainbow Minerals founder sits at $3.6 billion, behind Capitec founder Michiel le Roux on $3.7 billion, which leaves him eleventh.
1. Aliko Dangote
Net worth: $31.4 billion | Manufacturing | Nigeria
Dangote owns 87.45% of Dangote Cement and 92.3% of the Lagos refinery, the largest single asset in African private hands. He has led the continental ranking for fifteen consecutive years and has added about $2.9 billion since Forbes published its annual Africa list in March.
2. Nathan Kirsh
Net worth: $19.2 billion | Retail and property | Eswatini
Kirsh started in southern African milling and now owns Jetro Holdings, whose Restaurant Depot and Jetro Cash & Carry chains supply independent restaurants and food businesses across the United States. He lives in London, and almost all of his wealth sits outside the continent that ranks him.
3. Johann Rupert and family
Net worth: $17.5 billion | Fashion and retail | South Africa
Rupert chairs Compagnie Financière Richemont, the Swiss group behind Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Montblanc and IWC, and controls the South African investment company Remgro. His father Anton built the family's original business in tobacco. He has gained roughly $1.4 billion since March.
4. Abdulsamad Rabiu
Net worth: $12.6 billion | Diversified | Nigeria
Rabiu founded BUA Group in Kano and built it across cement, sugar and food processing, listing BUA Cement and BUA Foods on the Nigerian Exchange. He has added about $1.4 billion since March and pledges $100 million a year through his foundation, ASR Africa, which funds hospitals, schools and security infrastructure.
5. Nicky Oppenheimer and family
Net worth: $10.7 billion | Metals and mining | South Africa
The Oppenheimers controlled De Beers and Anglo American across three generations before Nicky Oppenheimer sold the family's 40% of De Beers to Anglo American in 2012 for $5.1 billion. The proceeds went into Oppenheimer Generations, which invests across Africa, and into conservation, including the Tswalu Kalahari reserve.
6. Nassef Sawiris
Net worth: $9.6 billion | Construction and engineering | Egypt
Egypt's wealthiest person runs OCI, the fertiliser and chemicals group built out of the family construction business, and holds one of the largest stakes in Adidas. He co-owns the English football club Aston Villa with the American investor Wes Edens. His figure is unchanged since March.
7. Mike Adenuga
Net worth: $7 billion | Diversified | Nigeria
Adenuga founded Globacom, Nigeria's second-largest mobile network, which marked 23 years of operation this year, and controls the oil company Conoil. He made his first fortune in distribution and construction before moving into telecoms and petroleum, and has gained about $500 million since March.
8. Naguib Sawiris
Net worth: $5.6 billion | Telecoms | Egypt
Nassef's elder brother built Orascom Telecom into the leading operator in the region before merging it with VimpelCom in 2011, creating what was then the world's sixth-largest mobile provider. He took the executive chairmanship of Orascom Investment Holding on Aug. 19 and is in talks with an international operator about bidding for Egyptian airports.
9. Mohamed Mansour
Net worth: $4 billion | Diversified | Egypt
Mansour runs the group his father Loutfy founded in 1952, which became the exclusive distributor of General Motors vehicles and Caterpillar equipment across Egypt and several other markets and employs about 60,000 people. He served as Egypt's transport minister and later as senior treasurer of Britain's Conservative Party. His brother Yasseen chairs the property developer Palm Hills.
10. Michiel le Roux
Net worth: $3.7 billion | Finance and investments | South Africa
Le Roux founded Capitec in Stellenbosch in 2001 to lend to low-income South Africans who had little access to conventional banking, and it became the country's largest bank by customer numbers. He gave 55 million rand to the Democratic Alliance between April and June this year, more than half of everything the party raised.
The intelligence satisfies curiosity. The paid briefings satisfy strategy.
Every Monday, Elite subscribers receive an Investor Memo breaking down the deal, the structure and the positioning behind the week's most consequential African wealth story - the kind of analysis that doesn't appear anywhere else.
Twice a month, a Wealth Intelligence brief profiles a single billionaire's holdings, cash flows and expansion pipeline in detail no public source matches.
→ Executive ($25/mo): Daily newsletter + Deep-Dive Reports
→ Elite ($75/mo): Everything above + Investor Memos + Wealth Intelligence + Quarterly Analyst Briefings
Subscribe now
