Africa’s Richest

The continent’s wealthiest are weathering the pandemic just fine.

As everywhere, the wealthiest in Africa have come through the pandemic just fine. The continent’s 18 billionaires are worth an average $4.1 billion, up 12% from a year ago, driven in part by Nigeria’s surging stock market. For the tenth year in a row, Nigerian cement magnate Aliko Dangote (above) is Africa’s richest person, at $12.1 billion, up $2 billion. In second place: Nassef Sawiris of Egypt, whose largest asset is a nearly 6% stake in Adidas.

One person you won’t see here: Isabel dos Santos of Angola. In 2013, Forbes declared her the richest woman in Africa, with $3.5 billion—and spelled out just how the daughter of Angola’s longtime president had accumulated her assets, in part by looting the country. (At the time, her spokesperson told Forbes she was a “private investor representing solely her own interests” and that her investments were “transparent.”)

Angola’s government, under new president João Lourenço, wants to claw it back. In January 2020 the country’s attorney general charged Dos Santos, her husband and a business associate with embezzlement and money laundering costing Angola at least $1.1 billion. Dos Santos denied all charges. (Her husband died in Dubai last October, reportedly in a diving accident.)

Angolan officials have frozen her assets in the country, including stakes in a mobile telecom and two banks. Courts in Portugal (Angola’s former colonizer) and the Netherlands later followed suit. Forbes now values her frozen assets at zero; as such, her net worth has plummeted below $1 billion. Through a spokesman, Dos Santos declined to comment.