Africa and its billionaires

Say Nigeria and Africa, somehow, bandits and poverty, oil pipeline on fire; these are some of the pictures which comes to mind immediately. But did you know that that richest man there - Aliko Dangote is the richest man there, with a fortune of $22 billion. He owns controlling stake in  a conglomerate of cement, sugar, salt and noodle factories sprawled across 16 countries. And now he has set sights to climb onto the list of top five richest men in the world.

He is betting big on refineries. Nigeria is oil rich but over the past few decades no new investment has come into the oil sector and all refineries are inefficient and in very poor health. He now plans to invest $9 billion and build a swanky new refinery in Nigeria, which will produce more oil than any other African country.

Africa is hit by a huge wave of consumerism and this investment is a reflection of this optimism in the country currently. New airlines are taking off into the sky and car imports have risen manifold. International Energy Agency expects oil consumption in Africa to surge about 30% to 4.5 million barrels a day by 2018. And like India, this consumerism is spawning a new set of super rich, while widening  the gap between the rich and the poor. Over the past 10 years, Africa’s economy has grown at an average growth rate of 5.6% per annum v/s 3.6% p.a of rest of the world. This has given rise to some 27 billionaires in Africa, up from 16 in 2012. And to think that 20 years ago, the continent had just 2 billionaires and both of them South Africans.