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Aliko Dangote is Africa’s richest man for the seventh straight year, as Econet founder joins the billionaires' club

Aliko Dangote of Nigeria has been the richest person in Africa for the seventh year in a row.

According to Forbes, Dangote remains at the top of the list with  total assets worth $12.2billion. This is over $100 million increase in his wealth compared to 2017.  The increase is inched on the rise of his companies' share price on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).

In 2018, there are 23 billionaires in Africa as against 21  from 2017. Within the year, Africa has produced new billionaires - Micheil Le Roux, Strive Masiyiwa and Desmond Sacco.

A South African, Nicky Oppenheimer is the second richest man in Africa with a net worth of $7.7 billion. Oppenheimer's wealth  appreciated by $700 million when compared with 2017.

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There are only two women on the list – Isabel Dos Santos of Angola and Folorunsho Alakija of Nigeria.

Others on the list are Johann Rupert, Nassef Sawiris, Mike Adenuga, Issad Rebrab, Naguib Sawiris, Koos Bekker, Mohammed Mansour, Patrice Motsepe, Aziz Akhannouch, Yasseen Mansour, Othman Benjelloun, Mohammed Dewji, Youssef Mansour, Stephen Saad, Onsi Sawiris and Christoffel Wiese.

These 23 African billionaires are from 8 countries and most of them are South Africans. The list has 8 from South Africa, 6 from Egypt, 3 from Nigeria, 2 from Morocco and one member each from Algeria, Angola, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.

Meet the new billionaires in Africa

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There are 3 new African billionaires as shown by the 2018 Forbes' list of billionaires on the continent. Two of these individuals (Micheil Le Roux & Desmond Sacco) are South Africans and Strive Masiyiwa is Zimbabwean.

For Strive Masiyiwa, his massive investments in the telecommunication and media sectors in Africa for 2017 led to the rise in his wealth. His total worth increased to $1.7 billion from $600 million in 2014.

Desmond Sacco worth rose due to an increase in commodity prices especially diamond and gold. His net worth increased from $680 million in 2014 to $1.1 billion in 2018.

Micheil Le Rouxmade his wealth from his massive investments in the South African banking sector. His net worth increased by over 100% (from $530 million to $1.2 billion) between November 2015 and January 2018.

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