This list of the richest black billionaires was curated from intense research on the wealth of black men and women. The people who made the cut are not all Africans residing in Africa but comprise of people of African descent living in different parts of the world. This net worth was gotten from the most updated Forbes record.
Interestingly, there are only 2 women on the list leaving the other 8 positions to the men. It is important to note that these billionaires amassed their wealth from different sectors and through different means. While some made their money primarily from various investments and business ventures, others started off in entertainment and became successful businessmen/women.
Meet the 12 Richest Black Billionaires, What they are Worth, and How They Made Their Money
1. Aliko Dangote – $13.9 billion
Topping the billionaire list in Africa and the world at large is Nigerian man, Aliko Dangote. As of 2022, he leads the list of Africa’s richest persons for the 11th time in a row.
Dangote began his journey towards attaining his $13.9 billion wealth from his numerous business activities. He was born into a trading family as his grandfather was successful in the selling of rice and oats in Kano.
The 67-year-old is also a great investor and has divided his business prowess. He owns Dangote Cement which is the largest cement production company in Africa.
Initially, Aliko was widely known for the aforementioned which also contributed to the 30% increment in his net worth. The Dangote Cement Holding Company has operations in at least 10 other African countries.
This richest black billionaire in the world is now known for the production of cooking salt, sugar, and fertilizer. He also founded Dangote refineries which had been in construction since 2016.
By 2022, the construction of the refinery was completed. Now, the oil refinery is a 650,000-per-day refinery project that is aimed at increasing the production of oil in Nigeria.
2. Robert F. Smith – $8 billion
Smith is a United States citizen of black descent who founded the company, Vista Equity Partners, in the year 2000. He studied engineering in school and worked in quite a number of places before his University studies.
Vista Equity Partners is exclusively focused on investing in software companies such as Ping Identity, Jio, and STATS.
19 years after it was founded, the company was regarded as the 4th largest enterprise software company. It ranked just after Microsoft, Oracle, and SAP. Since its birth, it has realized annual returns of 31% and has about $96 billion in assets.
As of November 2018, celebritynetworth.com named the 61-year-old as the richest black man in America. As of then, Robert Smith had a net worth of $2.5 billion. He was also named as part of the 268 wealthiest Americans and was in the second position, just after Oprah Winfrey.
3. Abdulsamad Rabiu – $6.4 billion
With a net worth of $6.4 billion, Rabiu is regarded as a very wealthy man and not just in his home country, Nigeria, but the world at large.
His business ventures began in 1988 when he set up his own iron, steel, and chemicals importing company. As the son of a businessman, the 64-year-old inherited land from his father, and this helped him in his business pursuits.
Rabiu founded BUA Group which is a conglomerate that deals in the refining of sugar, and the production of cement and is also involved in real estate.
In 2020, he began to control the merged Obu Cement, one of his private ventures, with Cement Co. of Northern Nigeria. These merged companies are what is now known as BUA Cement PLC. Rabiu owns 98.5% of Nigerian stock exchange trades in this company.
4. David L. Steward – $6 billion
David Steward grew up in the United States of America and had a Bachelor of Arts/Science from Central Missouri State University. He wasn’t born into wealth as his father worked three jobs as a mechanic, janitor, and trash collector.
Steward, 73, grew up in a segregated neighborhood with his 7 siblings and had to work really hard to take care of himself.
Now, the man is a billionaire owing to his IT Company known as World Wide Technology. Even when he began this business, things did not go quite smoothly. Many times, he had no pay and even made losses.
The $6 billion rich man wasn’t deterred nonetheless. He now owns the majority of his company which makes as high as $14.5 billion in sales. David’s customers include other companies such as Citi, Verizon, and even the Federal Government of the United States of America.
5. Mike Adenuga – $5.7 billion
This Nigerian businessman was in the second position of the Top Nigerian Richest Men for a while. However, he has now taken a step back for Rabiu who is sitting pretty above him.
Adenuga inherited his business sense from his mother whom he helped while she was trading. From then, he acquired a lot of knowledge of business and further went on to get Bachelor’s and Master’s Degrees in Business Administration from Northwestern Oklahoma State University and Pace University, respectively. At the age of 26, he became a millionaire.
The now $5.7-billion rich businessman converted his wealth in business knowledge to riches in assets and money. He has businesses in the oil sector with his Conoil Producing Company which has at least 6 oil blocks in the Southern part of Nigeria.
In addition to his oil wealth, the 71-year-old also has a mobile network company known as Globacom. The company is the third largest in his birth country and has contributed immensely to the growth of his wealth.
6. Patrice Motsepe – $2.6 billion
He made his debut on Forbes after becoming a billionaire in 2008. Patrice was the first black African billionaire. Let’s back up a little to know what made him thus wealthy.
In 1994, Patrice was the first black person who made partner at Bowman Gilfillan Law firm, Johannesburg. At almost the same time, he delved into the mining services contracting business.
By 1997, Motsepe had begun buying low-producing gold mine shafts and was able to make them successful. Knowing how rich South Africa is in Gold and how profitable the business was back in the day, Patrice was able to cash out.
2016 saw the founding of his very own equity firm known as African Rainbow Minerals. The firm is widely known for its services and aims at investing heavily in Africa.
Some more ventures the South African-born had interests in were Sanlam Firm, a financial service firm in which Patrice was sure to acquire stakes.
Aged 62, he now owns the famous S.A Mamelodi Sundowns Football Club. By 2021, he was named the president of the Confederation of African Football.
READ ALSO: 15 Richest African Countries: Population, GDP, Minerals, Foreign Reserve
7. Oprah Gail Winfrey – $2.5 billion
The first woman making this list is of course Oprah Winfrey who has been in the business of making money for many years now. She is an entrepreneur, TV personality, and well-known philanthropist.
When listing billionaires, it is very unlikely that the name ‘Oprah’ would not make it. This woman has been running her TV show for over 2 decades now and succeeded in turning it into a business empire.
In addition to the money she makes from her show, she also makes money from films and production. The sum total of what Oprah Winfrey earns from entertainment has been pegged at over $2 billion.
By 2011, Winfrey launched a cable channel known as OWN where she has over 25.5% shares which amount to millions of dollars.
The 70-year-old TV personality is also a brand ambassador and owned a 10% stake in Weight Watchers. The ‘Oprah effect’ earned the show about 10% increase in subscribers after she became an investor in the show. Though the stake percentage was reduced to 7%, she still makes quite a fortune from there.
8. Michael J. Jordan – $1.7 billion
This greatest NBA player of all time according to a lot of people has accumulated a net worth of $1.7 billion from basketball and other businesses. While playing for the Chicago Bulls, the basketball player won several titles making him one of the best players ever.
Throughout his career as a sportsman, Jordan earned as high as $90 million. However, at the end of his career, he was worth as high as $1.8 billion before tax. Why he earned so much was partly due to the fact that he had deals with brands such as Nike, Hanes, and Gatorade.
Michael retired from playing basketball first in 1993 but made a return two years later, in 1995. By 2003, he made his final retirement and has gone on to try his hands in several other fields.
In 2014, he was named the first NBA player to become a billionaire. He was also named the Charlotte Business Journal’s Business Person of the Year in the same year.
One of Michael Jordan’s assets was Charlotte Hornets, an NBA team that was valued at $1.5 billion. Jordan, 61, also became a NASCAR team co-owner in 2020 after joining Draft-Kings sports betting firm as a special advisor and investor.
These are to name but a few of his assets and business investments.
9. Tope Awotona – $1.4 billion
Coding did not initially work for Tope, (43), and so he chose to do something different in the tech world. He earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration and so switching from coding to selling tech-related products wasn’t hard for the Atlanta-based. Tope Awotona sold for companies such as EMC which is now known as Dell EMC.
He was born in Lagos, Nigeria but moved to the United States with his family as a teenager. Tope’s success story does not come without the mention of him going broke as he invested his $200,000 into the business that has made him a billionaire today.
Awotona is the founder of the scheduling software company known as Calendly. It was founded after he got frustrated with the hassle it took to schedule meetings. In 2021, Tope took on a $350 million investment and this valued his company to be about $3 billion.
Despite having great competitors in his line of business, Tope Awotona was able to gain more customers for Calendly. From the wealth accrued from this company, he earned the title of one of America’s wealthiest immigrants.
10. Rihanna – $1.4 billion
36-year-old Rihanna joined the Forbes billionaire list in August 2022. She was also named a self-made billionaire after her business Fenty Cosmetics gained her over $550 million in 2020.
The singer who hails from Barbados co-owns Fenty Beauty and a fashion clothing line with LVMH, a French luxury retailer. While the latter did not earn her much, the former’s success made the singer a billionaire.
Rihanna also has a 30% stake in Savage X Fenty’s lingerie line. This particular venture also garnered about $1 billion as of February 2021.
SEE ALSO: Who Is The Richest Man In Africa? Top 10 List
11. Jay Z -$1.3 billion
In September 2022, Forbes confirmed that 54-year-old Jay-Z has a net worth of $1.3 billion. He was first named a billionaire in 2019 when he clinched the title of ‘Hip-Hop’s First Billionaire.’
The rapper’s wealth comes from his successful music career and from entertainment-related businesses such as his entertainment company Roc Nation. He was also involved in sports and a whole lot of other businesses.
In addition to the aforementioned, Jay-Z also has an interest in the making of alcoholic beverages. He owns Armand de Brignac Champagne as well as D’Usse Cognac drink.
Some more assets he has to his name are artworks by Jean-Michel Basquait and a Marcy Venture Partners company that he co-founded. The company is invested in consumer products, digital media, and also in technology.
MVP (Marcy Ventures Partner) has investments in various companies like Savage X Fenty and the Lomi Home Compost Machine. In 2019, during a fundraising, the company was able to raise as much as $85 million.
The rapper also has an interest in technology as he bought a Norwegian media technology company known as Aspiro. The deal was closed at $56 million in 2015.
12. Strive Masiyiwa – $1.2 billion
London-based telecom owner, Strive, hails from Zimbabwe and studied Engineering at the University of Wales. He is 63 years old and made the bulk of his wealth from his telecom producing service.
Beginning in 1998 when he won the government’s opposition to establishing Econet Wireless in Zimbabwe, he began to climb the ladder of success.
Now, the businessman owns more than 50% of the telecommunication company. The company is however just a part of a mother company known as Econet Group.
This Econet Company provides fiber optic and satellite services to other telecom firms in Africa. Strive also has stakes in mobile phone networks in countries such as Burundi and Lesotho. Additionally, he has stakes in fintech and power distribution firms in Africa.
With how much wealth he has amassed, he chooses to give back to society. He is a co-founder of the Higherlife Foundation which is aimed at supporting orphans and the poor in a few African countries. The other owner of this foundation is his wife, Tsitsi Masiyiwa.
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