fbpx

10 African Billionaires Who Can Thank Tech For Their Fortunes

10 African Billionaires Who Can Thank Tech For Their Fortunes

11 of 11

There are 25 African billionaires who can stake their claim among the estimated 2,043 dollar billionaires worldwide that make up the richest of the rich.

Mohammed Dewji of Tanzania remains the youngest African billionaire, while Angolan investor Isabel dos Santos and oil tycoon Folorunsho Alakija of Nigeria are the only two female billionaires on the continent.

A number of the African billionaires have earned some of their wealth thanks to tech and related sectors, with the modern digital world contributing revenues that have helped them to grow their personal net worth to billionaire status.

Here are the 10 African billionaires who can thanks tech for their fortunes.

Sources: Forbes, Quartz, Afrika-News, RichLifestyle,

Adenuga is the owner of Globacom and one of the African billionaires on this list. Thenationonlineng.net

Mike Adenuga

Nigerian Mike Adenuga is a billionaire with ties to the telecommunications industry, as he owns Globacom, is the second largest mobile operator in Nigeria with 36 million subscribers. His current net worth is $5.4 billion.

Egyptian Naguib Sawiris is a popular figure on Twitter. Photo: Ventures Africa
Egyptian Naguib Sawiris is a popular figure on Twitter. Photo: Ventures Africa

Naguib Sawiris

Egyptian investor and politician Sawiris turned his focus to politics in 2011, but before that he was executive chairman of telecommunications giants Wind Telecom and Orascom Telecom Holding. His net worth currently sits at around $3.8 billion.

Isabel dos Santos is one of the most influential women in Africa
Isabel dos Santos is one of the most influential women in Africa. Photo: answersafrica.com

Isabel dos Santos

Angola’s Isabel dos Santos is the richest women on the African continent, and a fair amount of her $3.5 billion fortune is derived from tech-related business. The head of Sonangol, Angola’s state oil firm, owns 25 percent of Unitel, the country’s largest mobile phone network, and 42 percent of a bank, Banco BIC. In addition, she is a shareholder of Portuguese cable TV and telecoms company, Nos SGPS.

South African billioniare and Naspers CEO, Koos Bekker. Photo: CNBC Africa/Forbes

Koos Bekker

With a net worth of around $2.2 billion, the former Naspers executive transformed the media company into the giant it is today. Between 1997 and 2014, he led the group to become Africa’s richest company, with their market capitalization going from $600 million to $45 billion.

Onsi Sawiris is an Egyptian billionaire. Photo - Richest Lifestyle
Onsi Sawiris is an Egyptian billionaire. Photo – Richest Lifestyle

Onsi Sawiris

Father of Naguib, who was introduced earlier in this list, the patriarch of the Sawiris family made his $1.19 billion fortune from telecoms and construction, founding the highly successful Orascom Group.

Othman Benjelloun, African family business
Othman Benjelloun is a banking billionaire. Photo: moroccoworldnews.com

Othman Benjelloun

Benjelloun’s father was a shareholder in a small Moroccan insurance company, which he took over in 1988 and built into privately held RMA Watanya, a leading insurance company that expanded into banking. He is now chairman of BMCE Bank, Africa’s second largest bank. Through his holding company FinanceCom, he is the majority shareholder of insurance company RMA Watanya and has a minority stake in Meditelecom, Morocco’s second largest mobile phone operator.

Egyptian Mohamed Mansour is the richest of the three Mansour brothers. Photo - Construction News
Egyptian Mohamed Mansour is the richest of the three Mansour brothers. Photo – Construction News

Mohamed Mansour

Mohamed is the richest of the three Mansour brothers, with a net worth of $2.7 billion. He oversees the Mansour Group, which has the sole distribution rights in Egypt for General Motors vehicles and Caterpillar construction equipment, while also operating the McDonald’s franchise.

Youssef Mansour is the older brother of Mohamed and Yasseen Mansour. Photo - Forbes
Youssef Mansour is the older brother of Mohamed and Yasseen Mansour. Photo – Forbes

Youssef Mansour

Mohamed Mansour’s brother Youssef is another of the Egyptians on this list, with a net worth of $1.15 thanks to his stake in the Mansour Group. In addition to the Egyptian rights for General Motors vehicles and Caterpillar construction equipment, the Mansour Group has the exclusive rights to Caterpillar sales in Russia and six African countries.

Tanzania's Richest Man
Mohammed “Mo” Dewji, CEO, MeTL Group. Photo: Forbes.com

Mohammed Dewji

Dewji, the chief executive officer of Tanzania’s METL, a conglomerate with interests in manufacturing and distribution. He has been active in bringing tech solutions to those industries in order to improve efficiency within his business, assisting him in building his net worth of $1.39 billion.

Motsepe is a South Africa billionaire who is looking to expand into tech. Mineweb.com/Patrice Motsepe

Patrice Motsepe

Motsepe made his fortune in mining, but in recent months and years he has looked to financial services and telecoms as areas in which to expand. The founder of African Rainbow Minerals used the company to acquire a 20 percent stake in Rain, a fixed and mobile data network operator.