It is no news that black people are making waves in the world today. According to Forbes, 13 black billionaires made it to the 2019 Forbes List of the World’s Billionaires. So who are the Top 10 Richest Black People in the world today? The answer is provided below.
1. Aliko Dangote
Net worth: $10.9 billion
Topping this list of Richest Black People in the world is Nigeria’s Aliko Dangote. He is also the richest man in Africa.
Dangote is a cement and commodities tycoon and built his fortune from sales of cement, sugar, and flour. He built the Dangote Group with a loan he got from his maternal uncle 3 decades ago. The company is today the largest industrial conglomerate in West Africa.
Due to the challenge Nigeria is facing in the refining of its crude oil, Dangote has diversified his business interests to include oil refining. He is currently building a private oil refinery in Nigeria with a refining capacity of 6,500,000 barrels per day to help reduce the country’s dependence on oil imports.
2. Mike Adenuga
Net worth: $9.1 billion
Closely behind Dangote is another Nigerian, Mike Adenuga. Adenuga earned his fortune from oil and mobile telecoms.
He owns Conoil Producing Company, one of the first indigenous Nigerian companies to be granted an oil exploration license in the early 90s.
Conoil operates 6 blocks in the oil rich Niger Delta of Nigeria and also owns a 25% stake in the Joint Development Zone (JDZ) Block 4.
Mike Adenuga is famously known as the founder and owner of indigenous mobile phone network, Globacom. Globacom currently operates in Nigeria and some neighbouring countries such as Ghana.
It has over 40 million subscribers on its network. He is also into real estate operating through his property company, Cobblestone Properties. The company has hundreds of prime residential and commercial property spread all over Nigeria.
3. Robert F. Smith
Net worth: $5 billion
American businessman, investor, and philanthropist, Robert Frederick Smith is the 3rd Richest Black Person in the world.
He was formerly a chemical engineer and investment banker. He is the founder, chairman, and CEO of Vista Equity Partners, a private equity firm.
The company has more than $46 billion in assets and is focused exclusively on investing in software companies.
4. David Steward
Net worth: $3 billion
David Steward is an American black billionaire with a net worth of $3 billion. He is the co-founder and chairman of IT provider World Wide Technology.
The firm is one of the largest African-American owned businesses in America with customers including Citi, Verizon and the federal government.
5. Oprah Winfrey
Net worth: $2.5 billion
In 5th place is the richest black woman in the world Oprah Winfrey. She was the queen of daytime TV for several years which fetched her considerable income.
She also made money from her Harpo production company. She now owns her own cable channel, OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network) that is now bringing in profits for her after initially struggling.
6. Strive Masiyiwa
Net worth: $2.4 billion
Masiyiwa, a Zimbabwean billionaire and owner of Econet comes in at number 6. His mobile telecoms company, Econet is one of the leading telecoms companies in Africa.
There are over 10 million subscribers spread across Zimbabwe, Botswana, Burundi and Lesotho on the Econet network presently.
7. Isabel Dos Santos
Net worth: $2.3 billion
Daughter of former Angolan President, Isabel Dos Santos is Africa’s richest woman.
She is a reputable business woman with an impressive investment portfolio that includes 25% stakes in Angolan mobile phone company Unitel and Angolan bank Banco BIC SA.
Some of Isabel’s other holdings include a substantial stake in Portuguese cable TV company Nos SGPS, and a little under 20% stake in one of Portugal’s publicly traded banks, Banco BPI.
7. Patrice Motsepe
Net worth: $2.3 billion
Tied with Isabel Dos Santos in 7th place is South Africa’s richest black man, Patrice Motsepe. Patrice is the first and only black billionaire to emerge in South Africa so far.
He founded African Rainbow Minerals (ARM), a Johannesburg Stock Exchange-listed mining company with interest in platinum, nickel, chrome, iron, manganese, coal, copper and gold.
Motsepe also has a large stake in private equity firm, African Rainbow Capital.
8. Michael Jordan
Net worth: $1.9 billion
Basketball legend and arguably the greatest player in the history of the sport, Micheal Jordan is the 8th Richest Black Personin the world today.
Jordan enjoys a $1 billion (sales) deal with sportswear giant Nike. This makes up a significant portion of his net worth. He also has lucrative deals with Gatorade, Hanes and Upper Deck. Michael Jordan is the majority stakeholder in Charlotte Bobcats.
8. Michael Lee-Chin
Net worth: $1.9 billion
Lee-Chin is a Canadian Of Jamaican descent. His fortune was made from investments in financial companies. The bulk of his wealth stems from his 65% stake in National Commercial Bank Jamaica.
9. Abdulsamad Rabiu
Net worth: $1.6 billion
The 3rd Nigerian billionaire to feature on this list is Abdulsamad Rabiu. He is the founder of Bua Group, a Nigerian conglomerate with interests in cement production, manufacturing, oil and gas, sugar refining, shipping, real estate, steel, and port concessions. Annual turnover of the group exceeds $2 billion.
10. Folorunsho Alakija
Net worth: $1.1 billion
Nigeria’s richest woman, Folorunsho Alakija is the founder of Famfa Oil, a Nigerian company with substantial participating interest in OML 127.
OML 127 is a lucrative oil block on the Agbami deep-water oilfield in Nigeria. She was formerly a secretary in a Nigerian merchant bank in the 1970s, but quit her job to study fashion design in England.
After returning back to Nigeria, she started a Nigerian fashion label providing services to the rich and affluent in society including Maryam Babangida, wife of Nigeria’s former military president Ibrahim Babangida.
10. Mohammed Ibrahim
Net worth: $1.1 billion
Mohammed Ibrahim is a Sudanese-born British business man. He founded Celtel International in 1998. The company provided mobile phone services in Africa and the Middle East.
In 2005, Ibrahim sold Celtel to Kuwait’s Mobile Telecommunications Company for $3.4 billion, pocketing $1.4 billion himself.
Conclusion
The richest black people in the world 2019 made their fortune from a wide range of areas including telecoms, technology, media, sports, oil and so on. It takes a lot of dedication and hard work to reach the heights that these men and women have attained which is why they are enjoying the big sums attached to their names.