Nigeria’s four listed billionaires overtook their South African peers in combined wealth in 2025, driven by rising equity valuations and strong corporate earnings, marking a rare shift in Africa’s billionaire rankings.

A BusinessDay analysis of the Forbes World’s Billionaires wealth tracker shows that the total net worth of Aliko Dangote, Abdulsamad Rabiu, Mike Adenuga, and Femi Otedola rose to $43.1 billion as of December 30, 2025, surpassing the $42 billion held by South Africa’s seven billionaires.

The milestone is notable given that South Africa, Africa’s biggest economy, still has the highest number of billionaires on the continent, rising to seven from five in 2024, while Nigeria has four, pointing to a broader shift in the continent’s economic structure and capital-market dynamics.

Nigeria’s billionaire wealth grew by 15.6 percent between March 29 and December 2025, from $37.3 billion, following a 61.4 percent surge in the previous year from $26.7 billion in March 2024.

Forbes updates billionaire net worth estimates in real time, adjusting the value of public holdings every five minutes during trading hours, while reassessing periodically privately held assets.

Data from real-time trading platform African Markets shows that the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) ranked the fourth best-performing stock market globally in 2025, down one position from 2024. The NGX All-Share Index (ASI) rose by 51.2 percent year on year to a record 155,613.03 points, while total market capitalization surged to N99.3 trillion ($69.1 billion).

The exchange closed 2025 at a historic high, delivering a 51.2 percent annual return—its strongest performance since 2007—and marking a sixth consecutive year of gains.

“This exceptional performance was underpinned by a combination of easing macroeconomic pressures, improved foreign investor sentiment following foreign-exchange market reforms, strong earnings growth among large-cap stocks, and sustained domestic liquidity seeking inflation hedges,” analysts at CSL Research said in a note on Monday.

They added that although 2025 was as the second-best year in nearly two decades, momentum was especially strong in the second half (H2) of the year, which delivered a 29.7 percent return, driven by a sharp 16.6 percent surge in July alone.

Dangote remains Africa’s richest man

Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest individual, saw his net worth rise by 7.1 percent in 2025 to $25.6 billion, supported largely by the valuation of his refinery and cement operations.

“Dangote of Nigeria tops the list for the 14th year in a row,” Forbes said in a recent report, noting that the sharp increase in his wealth over the past year was driven by the inclusion of the Dangote Refinery, which commenced operations in 2024 after years of delays.

The refinery—the world’s largest single-train refinery, located on the outskirts of Lagos, with a 650,000-barrel-per-day capacity—has reduced demand for refined-product imports and foreign exchange (FX) outflows, with refined-product imports falling to 3.1 million tonnes in the first quarter of last year.

“It began refining limited volumes of crude oil in early 2024 and is expected to reach full capacity in early 2026, enabling Nigeria to export refined petrol for the first time in decades,” the American media company added.

The Central Bank of Nigeria expects Dangote Refinery’s expansion of capacity to reach 700,000 barrels per day in 2025, with a medium-term target of 1.4 million barrels per day, to further reduce import dependence, support reserve accumulation, and reinforce FX stability.

Rabiu records highest billionaire wealth growth

Abdulsamad Rabiu, founder of BUA Group, recorded the highest wealth growth among Africa’s billionaires in 2025, with his net worth rising by 86.3 percent to $9.5 billion in December from $5.1 billion in March.

Rabiu is currently the fourth richest person in Africa, out of 22 billionaires, benefiting from the strong performance of his listed food and cement businesses.

Last August, BUA Foods became Nigeria’s most valuable listed company, overtaking MTN Nigeria after its market capitalization hit N10.4 trillion ($6.8 billion). As of January 2, 2026, the company’s market value had climbed 42.5 percent to N14.4 trillion ($10.1 billion), with its share price nearing N800.

Its sister company, BUA Cement, currently has a market capitalization of about N6.04 trillion ($4.2 billion).

Among Nigeria’s major cement producers, BUA Cement posted the strongest earnings growth for the second consecutive quarter in the three months ended September 2025. The company’s after-tax profit surged by 640.8 percent year-on-year, far outpacing Dangote Cement’s 149.8 percent and Lafarge Africa’s 144.1 percent growth.

Mixed outcomes for Nigeria’s other billionaires

While Rabiu and Dangote recorded gains, Nigeria’s billionaire wealth story was mixed.

Femi Otedola’s net worth rose by 6.7 percent to $1.6 billion, supported by gains in energy and listed equities. Mike Adenuga, Nigeria’s third-richest man, saw his wealth decline by 5.9 percent to $6.4 billion, reflecting valuation pressures across telecoms.

South Africa and Egypt lag in wealth growth

South Africa’s billionaire class recorded combined wealth growth of 16.7 percent between March and December 2025, outperforming Nigeria in percentage terms but falling short in absolute value.

Egypt, which increased its number of billionaires to five from four, saw total billionaire wealth decline 4.4 percent to $19.6 billion, highlighting uneven asset performance across North Africa.

Africa’s billionaire wealth tops $116bn

Africa’s billionaire population stood at 22 individuals in 2025, with combined wealth rising to $116 billion in December, up from $105 billion in March and $82.4 billion a year earlier.

Several African billionaires outside Nigeria also posted strong gains. South Africa’s Jannie Mouton and family saw their fortune rise by 53 percent, while Michiel Le Roux gained 45 percent, with Christoffel Wiese increasing his wealth by 26.6 percent.

In North Africa, Othman Benjelloun and the family of Morocco recorded a 25 percent increase in net worth to $2 billion, driven by banking, insurance, and telecom investments across the continent. (BusinessDay)