Aliko Dangote, Femi Otedola, Mike Adenuga, and Abdulsamad Rabiu have been named among the 2025 Forbes Africa billionaires, with Dangote leading the pack as the richest African for the 14th consecutive year.
Forbes released the list on Saturday, highlighting the quartet as the only Nigerians featured in the rankings. Dangote, whose wealth is primarily tied to the Dangote Refinery, tops the list with a net worth of $23.9 billion, marking a significant increase from his 2024 net worth of $13.9 billion. According to Forbes, this surge in his fortune is largely attributed to the inclusion of his refinery, which opened in 2024 after years of delays.
In the fifth position is Mike Adenuga, the chairman of Globacom, with a net worth of $6.8 billion, while Abdulsamad Rabiu, founder of BUA Group, ranks sixth with an estimated worth of $5.1 billion.
Femi Otedola, chairman of First Bank of Nigeria (FBN) Holdings Plc, ranks 16th, with a net worth of $1.5 billion. Forbes highlighted the significant 40% surge in Geregu Power’s shares, which helped boost Otedola’s wealth. “Femi Otedola’s fortune grew more than 30% in the past year,” Forbes noted.
South Africa leads the list with seven billionaires, followed by Nigeria and Egypt, both of which have four billionaires each. Other countries represented include Morocco, Algeria, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe.
The cumulative wealth of Africa’s billionaires surpassed $100 billion for the first time, reaching a total of $105 billion, up from $82.4 billion the previous year. The magazine emphasized that generating such wealth on the continent, where challenges such as political instability, currency crises, and tough consumer markets persist, is a remarkable achievement.
