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Top 10 Richest Black People In The World

Published

1 year ago

October 21, 2024

In a world where success is often measured by wealth, the richest Black people stand out as remarkable figures.

These individuals are pioneers in diverse fields, from business to entertainment, and their achievements not only shatter barriers but also pave the way for others to follow.

Take a look at the top 10 richest Black people in the world:

David Steward $11.4 billion USA
David Lloyd Steward, born in 1951, is an American billionaire entrepreneur. He is the founder and chairman of World Wide Technology (WWT), which is among the largest African-American-owned companies in the United States. In 2024, Steward was ranked 344th on Forbes’ list of billionaires globally, with an estimated net worth of $11.4 billion.

Aliko Dangote ($11.3 billion)
Aliko Dangote, born on April 10, 1957, is one of the richest Black people in the world. A prominent Nigerian businessman and industrialist, he is notably the first person to build a private oil refinery in Nigeria. As of October 2024, Forbes ranks him as the 211th richest person in the world, with an estimated net worth of $11.2 billion. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, his wealth is estimated at $27.7 billion.

Robert F. Smith ($10.8 billion)
Robert Frederick Smith, born on December 1, 1962, is an American billionaire businessman and philanthropist. He is the founder, chairman, and CEO of Vista Equity Partners, a private equity firm. Smith earned a chemical engineering degree from Cornell University and later an MBA from Columbia Business School. Before founding his company, he worked as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs. In 2019, during a commencement speech at Morehouse College, Smith made headlines when he pledged to cover the entire $34 million in student loan debt for the graduating class of 2019.

Mike Adenuga ($6.6 billion)
Mike Adenuga, Nigeria’s second wealthiest person, amassed his fortune through telecommunications and oil ventures. His mobile network company, Globacom, is the second-largest in Nigeria, boasting over 60 million subscribers. In addition to telecommunications, Adenuga’s oil company, Conoil Producing, operates six oil blocks in the Niger Delta.

Globacom also established Glo-1, a 6,100-mile submarine internet cable linking the U.K. with Ghana and Portugal. Adenuga holds a 74% stake in publicly traded Conoil and owns just under 6% of Nigerian bank Sterling Financial Holding.

Abdulsamad Rabiu ($ 4.7 billion)
One of the richest Black people in the world, Abdul Samad Isyaku Rabiu is a prominent Nigerian businessman and philanthropist. As of 2024, he ranks as Nigeria’s third richest man. His father, Khalifah Isyaku Rabiu, was one of Nigeria’s leading industrialists in the 1970s and 1980s. Abdul Samad is the founder and chairman of BUA Group, a Nigerian conglomerate focused on manufacturing, infrastructure, and agriculture, generating over $2.5 billion in revenue. He also serves as the chairman of Nigeria’s Bank of Industry (BOI).

In July 2020, Forbes valued his net worth at $3.2 billion, placing him 716th among the world’s billionaires. By January 2022, he was recognised as Nigeria’s second richest person. In April 2022, he ranked as the fifth-richest person in Africa with a fortune of $6.7 billion, and by January 2023, he climbed to fourth on the continent’s wealthiest list.

Michael Jordan ($3.5 billion)
Widely considered the greatest basketball player of all time, Michael Jordan won six championships with the Chicago Bulls. Throughout his career, his total salary amounted to $90 million, but his earnings from partnerships with brands like Nike, Hanes, and Gatorade have reached an astounding $2.4 billion (before taxes). In 2020, Jordan became a special advisor and investor for the sports-betting company DraftKings and also co-owned a NASCAR team. In 2023, he sold his majority stake in the Charlotte Hornets in a deal that valued the NBA team at $3 billion.

Oprah Winfrey ($3 billion)
Oprah Winfrey turned her 25-year-long talk show into a powerful media and business empire. The profits from her show, combined with earnings from films like ‘The Color Purple’, ‘Beloved’, and ‘Selma’—which were co-produced by her company, Harpo Productions—have brought her wealth to an estimated $2.5 billion.

In 2011, she launched the OWN cable channel and later sold most of her shares in it to Warner Bros. Discovery in 2020, receiving company stock in return.

In 2015, Winfrey purchased a 10% stake in WeightWatchers, and in 2024, she generously donated her shares to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture.
Winfrey also owns an extensive real estate portfolio, including homes in California and more than a dozen properties, along with 2,100 acres of land in Hawaii.

Patrice Motsepe ($3 billion)
Patrice Motsepe, founder and chairman of African Rainbow Minerals, became a billionaire in 2008, making history as the first Black African to appear on the Forbes billionaire list. In 2016, he established African Rainbow Capital, a private equity firm focused on investments across Africa. Motsepe also holds a stake in Sanlam, a publicly traded financial services company, and is the owner and president of the Mamelodi Sundowns Football Club.

In March 2021, he was elected president of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), the governing body for soccer on the continent. His business journey began in 1994 when he became the first Black partner at Johannesburg law firm Bowman Gilfillan, later launching a mining services company. In 1997, Motsepe acquired underperforming gold mine shafts, which he successfully turned around.

Jay-Z ($2.5 billion)
Since becoming hip-hop’s first billionaire in 2019, Jay-Z has significantly increased his wealth, largely due to his successful liquor ventures. In 2021, luxury conglomerate LVMH acquired a 50% stake in his champagne brand, Armand de Brignac, also known as Ace of Spades. In February 2023, he sold a majority of his ownership in his cognac brand, D’Usse, to Bacardi.

Beyond liquor, Jay-Z’s wealth includes assets like an art collection featuring works by Jean-Michel Basquiat, his extensive music catalog, and stakes in companies such as Block and Uber. In 2021, he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and in 2022, he won an Emmy for producing the Super Bowl Halftime Show.

Strive Masiyiwa ($1.8 billion)
Strive Masiyiwa faced huge government resistance when he launched the mobile phone network Econet Wireless Zimbabwe in his home country in 1998. He holds a 38% stake in the publicly traded Econet Wireless Zimbabwe, which is part of his larger Econet Group, as well as about 33% of EcoCash, a mobile money transfer company.

Masiyiwa also has an investment in Liquid Intelligent Technologies, a private firm that offers fiber optic and cloud services to telecom companies throughout Africa. His portfolio includes investments in fintech and power distribution companies across the continent, along with stock options in Netflix, where he has been a board member since December 2020. He and his wife, Tsitsi, founded the Higherlife Foundation, which assists orphaned and underprivileged children in Zimbabwe, South Africa, Burundi, and Lesotho.

Headline

US: Four Killed, 10 Others Wounded In California Shooting

Published

9 hours ago

November 30, 2025

Editor

Four people were confirmed dead and 10 others injured after a shooting at a family gathering in California, United States on Saturday night, according to US police, who described the attack as a “targeted incident.”

The incident occurred inside a banquet hall in Stockton, northeast of San Francisco, shortly before 6:00 pm, spokesperson for the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office, Heather Brent, told reporters during a news briefing.

Brent said the victims, ranging from “juveniles to adults,” were rushed to nearby hospitals, noting that details about the shooting remained limited.

“What we have confirmed at this time is that there was a banquet hall where a family was celebrating. We have 14 victims of this shooting. Four of those are deceased,” Brent said.

“Early indications suggest that this may be a targeted incident. Investigators are exploring all possibilities at this time.”

The sheriff’s office posted on social media that detectives were “working to determine the circumstances leading up to this tragedy.”

“We are urging anyone with information, video footage, or who may have witnessed any part of this incident to contact the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office immediately,” the post added.

Authorities said no suspect had been identified at the time of the report.

California Governor Gavin Newsom was briefed on the development, his office said in a social media statement.

Data from the Gun Violence Archive shows there have been 504 mass shootings in the United States so far this year, including the Stockton attack.

(AFP)

Headline

FULL LIST: US To Review Green Cards From 19 ‘Countries Of Concern’ After Washington Shooting

Published

2 days ago

November 29, 2025

Editor

The Trump administration announced on Thursday that it will review the immigration status of all permanent residents, or “Green Card” holders, from Afghanistan and 18 other countries following the attack on National Guard troops in Washington, D.C.

U.S. officials identified the suspect in Wednesday’s shooting as a 29-year-old Afghan national who previously worked alongside American forces in Afghanistan.

The individual was granted asylum earlier this year, not permanent residency, according to AfghanEvac, an organisation that assists Afghans resettled in the United States after the Taliban takeover in 2021.

“I have directed a full-scale, rigorous reexamination of every Green Card for every alien from every country of concern,” said Joseph Edlow, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), on X.

The review follows a June executive order from President Trump classifying 19 countries as “of Identified Concern.”

The order banned entry for nearly all nationals from 12 countries, including Afghanistan. The full list of these countries is:

Afghanistan

Myanmar

Chad

Congo-Brazzaville

Equatorial Guinea

Eritrea

Haiti

Iran

Libya

Somalia

Sudan

Yemen

A partial travel ban applies to seven additional countries, though some temporary work visas remain allowed: Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela.

Headline

Romanian Defence Minister Quits After Admitting Error In Academic Record

Published

2 days ago

November 29, 2025

Editor

Romania’s defence minister resigned on Friday after saying he made a “mistake” on his CV about his university education, as controversy swirled over alleged lies on his resume.

Ionut Mosteanu – who has admitted to writing on his CV that he graduated from a university he never attended – said he did not want the row “to distract” the NATO member at a time when it and Europe are “under attack from Russia”.

Romania has repeatedly seen drone fragments fall on its soil since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, and reported a number of drone incursions.

On Tuesday, a drone crashed in eastern Romania, which borders Ukraine.

Romania has also accused Moscow of “hybrid attacks”, including meddling in presidential elections last year that were subsequently annulled.

“Today, I resigned from my position as minister of national defence,” Mosteanu said in a Facebook post, adding he wanted the country to be focused on its “difficult mission”.

“Romania and Europe are under attack from Russia. Our national security must be defended at all costs,” he added.

Mosteanu had come under pressure after a media investigation published on Thursday revealed that he wrote in a CV that he graduated from a university which he did not actually attend.

That same day he apologised for what he called “a mistake”.

“In a CV I quickly put together in 2016 using a template I found online, there is a mistake that I admit embarrasses me. I didn’t pay much attention to these details at the time,” he said on Facebook.

Mosteanu was appointed defence minister in June of this year, when a new pro-European government was formed after months of political turmoil.

Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan said in a press release that he would propose economy and tourism minister Radu Miruta take over the defence portfolio in the interim.

AFP