Forbes has been tracking billionaires worldwide since 1987, when it identified just 140 individuals. Over the years, this number has surged, crossing the 1,000 mark in 2006 and 2,000 in 2017.
In 2025, the list reached a new milestone, with 3,028 billionaires globally—an increase of 247 from the previous year.
Collectively, these individuals have a net worth of $16.1 trillion, a nearly $2 trillion rise compared to 2024.
The United States continues to lead with a record 902 billionaires, followed by China, including Hong Kong, with 516, and India with 205. Forbes compiled the ranking based on stock prices and exchange rates as of March 7, 2025.
Here are Africans who made it onto Forbes’ 2025 Billionaires List:
Aliko Dangote of Nigeria ranks 83rd on the 2025 Forbes Billionaires List with a net worth of $23.9 billion. As Africa’s richest person, he is the founder and chairman of Dangote Cement, the continent’s largest cement producer, which has operations in 10 African countries. Dangote also owns a fertilizer plant in Nigeria and the recently operational Dangote Refinery.
Johann Rupert & family of South Africa hold the 165th spot with a net worth of $14 billion. Johann Rupert is chairman of Swiss luxury goods firm Compagnie Financiere Richemont. The company is best known for the brands Cartier and Montblanc. It was formed in 1998 through a spinoff of assets owned by Rembrandt Group Limited (now Remgro Limited), which his father Anton formed in the 1940s.
He owns 7% of diversified investment firm Remgro, which he chairs, as well as 27% of Reinet, an investment holding company based in Luxembourg. Rupert has been a vocal opponent of plans to allow fracking in the Karoo, a region of South Africa where he owns land
Nicky Oppenheimer & family of South Africa rank 258th with a net worth of $10.4 billion. Nicky Oppenheimer, heir to the De Beers diamond fortune, sold his 40% of the firm to mining group Anglo American for $5.1 billion in cash in 2012. He was the third generation of his family to run De Beers, and took the company private in 2001. For 85 years until 2012, the Oppenheimer family occupied a controlling spot in the world’s diamond trade. In 2014, Oppenheimer started Fireblade Aviation in Johannesburg, which operates chartered flights.
He owns at least 720 square miles of conservation land across South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique.
Nassef Sawiris of Egypt is 289th on the list with $9.6 billion. Nassef Sawiris is an investor and a scion of Egypt’s wealthiest family. In December 2020, he acquired a 5% stake in New York-listed firm Madison Square Garden Sports, owner of the NBA Knicks and the NHL Rangers teams. He runs OCI, one of the world’s largest nitrogen fertilizer producers, with plants in Texas and Iowa; it trades on the Euronext Amsterdam exchange. Orascom Construction, an engineering and building firm, trades on the Cairo exchange and Nasdaq Dubai. His holdings include a nearly 6% stake in German sportswear giant Adidas. Nassef Sawiris teamed up with Fortress Investment Group’s Wes Edens to purchase the Premier League’s Aston Villa Football Club.
Nathan Kirsh of Eswatini ranks 443rd with a net worth of $7.3 billion. The bulk of Nathan “Natie” Kirsh’s fortune comes from U.S.-based Jetro Holdings, which owns restaurant supply stores Jetro Cash and Carry and Restaurant Depot. Kirsh owns 70% of the company, which supplies wholesale goods to bodegas, small stores and restaurants in the United States. Kirsh made his first fortune in his native Swaziland, where he launched a corn milling business in 1958. He expanded into wholesale food distribution in apartheid South Africa, and then into supermarkets and commercial property development.
Mike Adenuga of Nigeria, with a net worth of $6.8 billion, ranks 498th. Mike Adenuga, Nigeria’s second richest man, built his fortune in telecommunications and oil production. His mobile phone network, Globacom, is the second-largest operator in Nigeria, with more than 60 million subscribers. His oil exploration outfit, Conoil Producing, operates 6 oil blocks in the Niger Delta.
Globacom also built Glo-1, a 6,100-mile-long submarine Internet cable to the U.K. via Ghana and Portugal.
Adenuga also owns 74% of publicly traded gasoline firm Conoil and just under 6% of publicly traded Nigerian bank Sterling Financial Holding.
Abdulsamad Rabiu of Nigeria ranks 700th with $5.1 billion. He is the founder of BUA Group, a Nigerian conglomerate active in cement production, sugar refining and real estate.
In early January 2020, Rabiu merged his privately-owned Obu Cement company with listed firm Cement Co. of Northern Nigeria, which he controlled. The combined firm, called BUA Cement Plc, trades on the Nigerian stock exchange; Rabiu owns 98.2% of it. He also owns 95% of publicly traded food conglomerate BUA Foods. Rabiu, the son of a businessman, inherited land from his father. He set up his own business in 1988 importing iron, steel and chemicals.
Naguib Sawiris of Egypt, at 717th with a net worth of $5 billion, built his wealth in telecom and investment, selling Orascom Telecom in 2011 to Russian telecom firm VimpelCom (now Veon) in a multibillion-dollar transaction. He is chairman of Orascom TMT Investments, which has stakes in an asset manager in Egypt and Italian internet company Italiaonline, among others. He also developed a luxury resort called Silversands on the Caribbean island of Grenada.
Koos Bekker of South Africa ranks 1072nd with $3.4 billion. He transformed Naspers into a global e-commerce and media giant through its investment in Tencent Holdings and oversees MultiChoice Group and Prosus. He led Naspers to pay a reported $34 million for a third of Chinese Internet firm Tencent Holdings in 2001–perhaps the greatest venture investment ever. In 2019, Naspers put some assets into two publicly-traded companies, entertainment firm MultiChoice Group and Prosus, which contains the Tencent stake.
Naspers has sold down its stake in Tencent over the years and today owns less than 25%. Bekker, who retired as the CEO of Naspers in March 2014, returned as chairman in April 2015.
Mohamed Mansour of Egypt, also at 1072nd with $3.4 billion, oversees the Mansour Group, which has major stakes in General Motors dealerships, Caterpillar distribution, and private equity. Mansour, who has both Egyptian and U.K. citizenship, served as Egypt’s minister of transportation from 2006 to 2009 under the Hosni Mubarak regime.
His brothers Yasseen and Youssef, who share ownership in the family group, are also billionaires; his son Loutfy heads private equity arm Man Capital.
Patrice Motsepe of South Africa is 1219th with $3 billion. He is the the founder and chairman of African Rainbow Minerals, became a billionaire in 2008 – the first black African on the Forbes list. In 2016, he launched a private equity firm, African Rainbow Capital, focused on investing in Africa. Motsepe also has a stake in Sanlam, a listed financial services firm, and is the president and owner of the Mamelodi Sundowns Football Club.
In March 2021, Motsepe was elected president of the Confederation of African Football, the sport’s governing body on the continent. In 1994, he became the first black partner at law firm Bowman Gilfillan in Johannesburg, and then started a mining services contracting business. In 1997, he bought low-producing gold mine shafts and later turned them profitable.
Issad Rebrab & family of Algeria, also ranked 1219th with $3 billion. Isaad Rebrab founded Cevital and served as its CEO for more than 50 years; He named his son, Malik, CEO in July 2022. Cevital, Algeria’s biggest privately-held company, owns one of the largest sugar refineries in the world, with the capacity to produce 2 million tons a year. Cevital owns European companies, including French home appliances maker Groupe Brandt and Spanish aluminum firm Alas Iberia.
After serving 8 months in jail on charges of corruption, Rebrab was released on January 1, 2020. He denies any wrongdoing. In May 2023, an Algerian court barred Rebrab from exercising any commercial or management duties at Cevital.
Michiel Le Roux of South Africa ranks 1626th with $2.2 billion. Michiel Le Roux of South Africa founded Capitec Bank in 2001 and owns about 11% of the company’s shares.
The bank, which trades on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, targets South Africa’s emerging middle class. He served as chairman of the board of Capitec from 2007 to 2016 and still sits on the company’s board. Le Roux previously ran Boland Bank, a small regional bank in Cape Town’s hinterland.
Mohammed Dewji of Tanzania, also at 1626th with $2.2 billion, leads METL, a conglomerate with operations in multiple African countries across industries like textiles, milling, and beverages. In addition to Tanzania, METL operates in 10 African countries including Uganda, Ethiopia and Kenya.
Dewji, Tanzania’s only billionaire, signed the Giving Pledge in 2016, promising to donate at least half his fortune to philanthropic causes. Dewji was reportedly kidnapped at gunpoint in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in October 2018 and released after nine days.
Othman Benjelloun & family of Morocco rank 2110th with $1.6 billion. Othman Benjelloun is CEO of BMCE Bank of Africa, which has a presence in more than 20 African countries. His father was a shareholder in RMA, a Moroccan insurance company; Benjelloun built it into a leading insurer. Through his holding company FinanceCom, he has a stake in the Moroccan arm of French telecom firm Orange. He inaugurated in 2014 a $500 million plan to build the 55-story Mohammed VI Tower in Rabat. It will be one of the tallest buildings in Africa.
Anas Sefrioui & family of Morocco, also at 2110th with $1.6 billion. Anas Sefrioui is the founder and CEO of listed homebuilder Groupe Addoha, which has prospered thanks to government contracts. He made his fortune developing low-cost housing in Morocco. His daughter Kenza is the company’s deputy chairman.
Jannie Mouton & family of South Africa rank 2233rd with $1.5 billion. Mouton founded PSG Group, an investment firm with stakes in banking, agriculture, and education.
Femi Otedola of Nigeria, also ranked 2233rd with $1.5 billion who made his first fortune in commodities before selling his shares in Forte Oil to invest in the energy business. Otedola is chairman of Geregu Power, a power generation business, and owns more than 70% of the shares.
During 2022 and 2023 Otedola sold down a Geregu stake that was once more than 95% to bring on institutional investors. Investors in Geregu include the Nigerian government, the Afrexim Fund for Export Development in Africa and the State Grid Corporation of China.
He also owns properties in Lagos, Dubai, London and Monaco, and holds shares in Zenith Bank and FBN Holdings.
Christoffel Wiese of South Africa, also at 2233rd with $1.5 billion. He built his Pepkor retail empire by offering bargain prices in South Africa, and expanded into other African countries.
In 2015, South Africa-based furniture retailer Steinhoff International spent $5.7 billion in cash and stock to acquire Pepkor. He stepped down as Steinhoff chairman in December 2017 after the company disclosed accounting irregularities. Its share price plummeted and Wiese lost his billionaire status.
Wiese regained his 9-figure fortune 2022 when he settled his dispute with Steinhoff for cash and stock, including a 5% stake in Pepkor.
His most valuable asset is Shoprite, but he also holds stakes in real estate firm Collins Property Group, investment holding company Brait and industrial products distributor Invicta Holdings.
In March 2023, Brait spun off food manufacturer Premier Group in an IPO on the Johannesburg stock exchange; Wiese owns about 47% of the shares.
Aziz Akhannouch & family of Morocco, also ranks at 2233rd with a net worth of $1.5 billion. Aziz Akhannouch is the majority owner of Akwa Group, a multibillion-dollar conglomerate founded by his father and a partner, Ahmed Wakrim, in 1932.
It has interests in petroleum, gas and chemicals through publicly-traded Afriquia Gaz and Maghreb Oxygene. Akhannouch was appointed prime minister of Morocco in Sept 2021.
Youssef Mansour of Egypt ranks 2356th with $1.4 billion. He is chairman of family-owned conglomerate Mansour Group, which was founded by his father Loutfy (d. 1976) in 1952. Mansour Group is the exclusive distributor of GM vehicles and Caterpillar equipment in Egypt and several other countries. He oversees the consumer goods division, which includes supermarket chain Metro, and sole distribution rights for L’Oreal in Egypt. Younger brothers Mohamed and Yasseen are also billionaires and part owners of Mansour Group.
Yasseen Mansour of Egypt ranks 2623rd with $1.2 billion. He is a shareholder in Mansour Group and chairs Palm Hills Developments, a major real estate developer in Egypt.
Strive Masiyiwa of Zimbabwe, is also at 2623rd with $1.2 billion. He overcame protracted government opposition to launch mobile phone network Econet Wireless Zimbabwe in his country of birth in 1998.
He owns 38% of publicly-traded Econet Wireless Zimbabwe, which is one part of his larger Econet Group, as well as roughly 33% of mobile phone-based money transfer firm EcoCash. Masiyiwa also owns a stake in private company Liquid Intelligent Technologies, which provides fiber optic and and cloud-based services to telecom firms across Africa.
His other assets include investments in fintech and power distribution firms in Africa plus stock options in Netflix, where he has served on the board since December 2020.
He and his wife Tsitsi founded the Higherlife Foundation, which supports orphaned and poor children in Zimbabwe, South Africa, Burundi and Lesotho.
Forbes