Africa's new billionaire class skips Zambia entirely

Aliko Dangote is no longer Africa's only story. The Nigerian cement and refining magnate still wants his Dangote Group to become the continent's first $100 billion company by 2030, but he now has real competition. Abdul Samad Rabiu, founder of Nigeria's BUA Group, was ranked Africa's second richest person in May with a net worth of roughly $19 billion (since down to about $14 billion). In Tanzania, Mo Dewji, the youngest billionaire on the continent and the only one in East Africa, is pushing his family's MeTL Group toward $10 billion in revenue by 2030, with an eventual pivot into e-commerce. Rostam Azizi, Tanzania's first dollar billionaire, is building a gas terminal in Kenya he says will be Africa's largest. | Tycoon | Company | Country | What sets him apart | |---|---|---|---| | Aliko Dangote | Dangote Group | Nigeria | Africa's richest man; opened the continent's largest oil refinery in 2023; targeting a $100bn group by 2030 | | Abdul Samad Rabiu | BUA Group | Nigeria | Africa's second richest, around $14bn now; wants BUA Foods to be Nigeria's biggest food maker by 2027 | | Mo Dewji | MeTL Group | Tanzania | East Africa's only billionaire, and the continent's youngest; targeting a $10bn group by 2030 | | Rostam Azizi | Gas distribution | Tanzania | Tanzania's first dollar billionaire (2013); building an LPG terminal in Kenya | McKinsey now counts roughly two-thirds of Africa's companies with revenues over $1 billion as locally owned, up from a continent once dominated by subsidiaries of foreign multinationals. But look closer and the pattern narrows fast. Of Africa's 28 billionaires, 25 come from just four economies: Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt and Morocco. "It is very hard to build a billion-dollar business if you are not in Nigeria, South Africa or Egypt," McKinsey's Africa chairman Acha Leke told The Economist. Zambia is not on that list, and it shows. This is where the story stops being someone else's news. This newsletter has already been tracking why