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Jean Kacou Diagou helped write the insurance rulebook for 14 African countries — then quit to compete in the market he'd regulated. From a €457,000 start in 1995 he built NSIA into a 12-country bank-insurance group. This week he pruned it, exiting Nigerian life insurance.
The Castel Group is Africa's biggest brewer outside South Africa, sells ~€7 billion a year, and almost no one has heard of it. Now the 99-year-old founder's heirs are at war with the CEO he installed — fought inside a Singapore trust, headed for a courtroom this autumn.
Nigeria rejoins FTSE's frontier index on Sept 21, sending global passive capital to ten giants — Dangote Cement, First HoldCo, MTN. But BUA, UBA and Seplat were left out on free float, not size. The paradox: the concentration that makes these owners rich keeps their companies out.
Four branches of the Castel family have publicly distanced themselves from Romy Castel as the fight over Grégory Clerc's position drags into a year.
Jannie Mouton, one of South Africa's most admired investors, admitted that unbundling PSG's Capitec stake in 2003 cost the firm $1.4 billion — a rare confession of the one that got away.
Forbes' daily ranking on Sept. 1 puts Aliko Dangote at $31.4 billion and Nathan Kirsh second at $19.2 billion, ahead of Johann Rupert.
Nigeria's oil refining just posted its strongest quarter on record, up 43.94% — and Aliko Dangote's refinery is the only reason.
Shoprite added R18.1 billion in sales while running price deflation at Shoprite and Usave, and is buying coffee chain Vida e Caffè and R&A Cellular.
An Angolan independent used a legal right of first refusal to snatch two of Chevron's oil blocks from a London-listed bidder — the clearest sign yet that as the majors retreat, African oil is passing into African hands.
In 1977, Stella Okoli opened a small chemist's shop in Lagos with 5,000 naira and her father's house as collateral. She built it into one of Nigeria's largest drugmakers.
For two decades East Africa imported the clinker that makes cement. Now three billionaires, led by former temple assistant Narendra Raval, are pouring $600 million into making it locally as the multinationals retreat and tariffs bite. Inside the bet on self-sufficiency.
Chevron agreed to sell two Angolan oil blocks to London-listed Energean for $260 million. Then Etu Energias, already a partner, used a right of first refusal to take the deal itself. A masterclass in how insiders win — and a signpost to who owns Africa's oil next.
Lionel Messi announced his Argentina retirement on Instagram, in a note he wrote on July 21 and revised after his father Jorge died on Aug. 8.
Christo Wiese, worth about R31 billion, says the slogan aimed at him for years is meaningless and that 95% of his wealth remains in South Africa.
Koos Bekker, author of perhaps the greatest venture bet in history, set his 2028 retirement — in a room of investors revolting over the structure that keeps Naspers trading below the value of its assets.
