VAM News Update

Despite economic headwinds that affected Nigeria’s economy, three Nigerians have appeared in the list of richest black people on earth. They are Aliko Dangote, Abdulsamad Rabiu and Mike Adenuga.

Aliko Dangote, President of the pan-African Conglomerate, the Dangote Group, tops the list.

Here is a list of 10 richest black people on earth

1. Aliko Dangote ($10.8 billion)

Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest person, founded and chairs Dangote Cement, the continent’s largest cement producer.

He owns 85% of publicly-traded Dangote Cement through a holding company.

Dangote Cement has the capacity to produce 48.6 million metric tons annually and has operations in 10 countries across Africa.

After many years in development, Dangote’s fertilizer plant in Nigeria began operations in March 2022.

Dangote Refinery has been under construction since 2016 and is expected to be one of the world’s largest oil refineries once complete.

2. Robert F. Smith ($8 billion)

Robert F. Smith founded private equity firm Vista Equity Partners in 2000. It focuses exclusively on investing in software companies.

With $96 billion in assets, Vista is one of the best-performing private equity firms, posting annualized returns of 31% since inception.

In October 2020, Smith entered into an agreement with the DOJ and IRS, agreeing to pay $139 million for his role in a tax evasion scheme.

As a college student, Smith secured an internship at Bell Labs after calling the company every week for five months.

An engineer by training, he worked at Kraft Foods and Goodyear Tire before getting his MBA at Columbia University.

During a commencement speech, Smith vowed to wipe out the student debt of the entire 2019 graduating class of Morehouse College.

3. David Steward ($7.6 billion)

David Steward is the founder and chairman of IT provider World Wide Technology.

In the early days, Steward sometimes went without a paycheck and once watched his car get repossessed from the office parking lot.

Today he is majority owner of the $14.5 billion (sales) company, whose customers include Citi, Verizon and the federal government.

He grew up in the segregated South with seven siblings; his father worked as a mechanic, janitor and trash collector.

Steward donated $1.3 million to the University of Missouri-St. Louis in 2018 to create the David and Thelma Steward Institute for Jazz Studies.

4. Abdulsamad Rabiu ($5.6 billion)

Abdulsamad Rabiu 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.

Rabiu, the son of a businessman, inherited land from his father.

He set up his own business in 1988 importing iron, steel and chemicals.

5. Mike Adenuga ($3.6 billion)

Adenuga, Nigeria’s second richest man, built his fortune in telecom and oil production.

His mobile phone network, Globacom, is the third largest operator in Nigeria, with 55 million subscribers.

His oil exploration outfit, Conoil Producing, operates 6 oil blocks in the Niger Delta.

Adenuga got an MBA at Pace University in New York, supporting himself as a student by working as a taxi driver.

He made his first million at age 26 selling lace and distributing soft drinks.

6. Jay-Z ($2.5 billion)

Since becoming hip-hop’s first billionaire in 2019, Jay-Z has more than doubled his fortune thanks to his lucrative liquor businesses.

In 2021, giant LVMH purchased a 50% stake in his champagne empire Armand de Brignac, otherwise known as Ace of Spades.

Jay-Z sold a majority of his stake in his cognac brand D’Usse to Bacardi in February 2023.

His other assets range from a fine art collection including works by Jean-Michel Basquiat, his music catalog and shares in companies like Block and Uber.

In 2021 he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame; He won an Emmy in 2022 for Outstanding Variety Special for his production of the Super Bowl Halftime Show.

7. Oprah Winfrey ($2.5 billion)

Oprah Winfrey has transitioned her hit talk show, which ran for 25 years, into a media and business empire.

Reinvested, the profits from her show, plus profits from films like The Color Purple, Beloved and Selma (which her Harpo Productions coproduced) add up to an estimated more than $2 billion.

In 2011, Winfrey launched cable channel OWN. She sold most of her stake in the network to owner Warner Bros. Discovery in 2020 in exchange for shares in the company.

Winfrey bought a 10% stake in Weight Watchers in 2015, though she owns less now.

Her sprawling real estate portfolio includes homes in California, Nashville and over a dozen properties in Hawaii.

8. PATRICE MOTSEPE ($2.3 billion)

Patrice Motsepe, 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.

9. Michael Jordan ($2 billion)

Regarded by most as the NBA’s greatest all-time player, Michael Jordan won six titles with the Chicago Bulls.

His salary during his career totaled $90 million, but he has earned $1.8 billion (pre-tax) from such corporate partners as Nike, Hanes and Gatorade.

MJ joined sports-betting firm DraftKings as a special advisor to the board and an investor in September 2020.

He also became a NASCAR team co-owner in late 2020.

Jordan, who owns the Charlotte Hornets, agreed to sell a minority stake in a 2019 deal that valued the NBA team at $1.5 billion.

10. STRIVE MASIYIWA, ($1.8 billion)

Strive Masiyiwa overcame protracted government opposition to launch mobile phone network Econet Wireless Zimbabwe in his country of birth in 1998.

He owns just over 50% of the publicly-traded Econet Wireless Zimbabwe, which is one part of his larger Econet Group.

Masiyiwa also owns just over half of private company Liquid Telecom, which provides fiber optic and satellite services to telecom firms across Africa.

His other assets includeincludee stakes in mobile phone networks in Burundi and Lesotho, and investments in fintech and power distribution firms in Africa.

He and his wife Tsitsi founded the Higherlife Foundation, which supports orphaned and poor children in Zimbabwe, South Africa, Burundi and Lesotho.