While 2025 is still very early, so far there hasn’t been much positive movement in the fortunes of Africa’s richest billionaires.
- Positive movement in the fortunes of Africa’s richest billionaires remains scarce.
- Only four of the 10 richest people on Bloomberg’s billionaire index have a positive year-to-date change.
- African billionaires on the daily index have no positive year-to-date change.
This trend is prevalent across the globe, as even some of the world’s richest individuals have so far either stagnated or suffered some form of decline.
Of the 10 richest people on Bloomberg’s current billionaire index, only four, including Mark Zuckerberg, Bernard Arnault, Sergey Brin, and Larry Page, have a positive year-to-date (YTD) change.
Others, such as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Larry Edison, Bill Gates, Steve Balmer, and Warren Buffet, have all had YTD losses.
For African billionaires on the daily index, none have a positive YTD change and none have a positive daily change.
While this may appear alarming, this is simply the nature of personal wealth based on market changes, especially for individuals who command towering levels of wealth.
Most billionaires’ wealth is inextricably linked to the stock market, which is itself unpredictable and constantly shifting.
Furthermore, investments in a range of industries, such as real estate, technology, and commodities, can increase or decrease in value as a consequence of market forces and financial trends, such as currency fluctuations.
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Inflation, interest rates, geopolitical events, and economic downturns or booms are among the macroeconomic factors that can affect asset values and, as a result, a billionaire’s net worth.
With that said, here’s how Africa’s 5 richest people have performed in the year so far.
| Name | Net worth | Last change | Year-to-Date (YTD) change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aliko Dangote | $28.1B | -$1.63M | -$7.76M |
| Johann Rupert & family | $13.4B | -$101M | -$259M |
| Natie Kirsh | $9.25B | -$93.5M | -$83.7M |
| Nassef Sawiris | $8.56B | -$122M | -$131M |
| Naguib Sawiris | $6.75B | -$108M | -$139M |
Source: Bloomberg
Bloomberg’s methodology
“The Bloomberg Billionaires Index is a daily ranking of the world’s richest people. In calculating net worth, Bloomberg News strives to provide the most transparent calculations available, and each individual billionaire profile contains a detailed analysis of how that person’s fortune is tallied.
The index is a dynamic measure of personal wealth based on changes in markets, the economy and Bloomberg reporting. Each net worth figure is updated every business day after the close of trading in New York. Stakes in publicly traded companies are valued using the share’s most recent closing price. Valuations are converted to U.S. dollars at current exchange rates.”
