No one made bigger bucks in Africa in
2013 than the continent’s richest man,
Aliko Dangote. The Nigerian cement, sugar and flour mogul saw his fortune soar $10.1 billion, or 79% through Wednesday, the 31st of December 2013. The biggest catalyst was his Dangote Cement shares which has experienced a 74% run-up over the last 12 months. He is now worth $22.9 billion according to FORBES’s most recent statistics, up from $12.8 billion at the end of December 2012.

2013 was a roller coaster year for Dangote.
In April, the 57-year-old tycoon
announced that his Dangote Group, West
Africa’s largest company, would construct
a private oil refinery in Nigeria. When
completed, it will have a refining capacity of 400,000 barrels per day and will reduce
Nigeria’s dependence on oil imports.

Dangote’s name attracts big money, and
several local and international financiers
quickly lined up to back him on the
project. He subsequently raised $4.5
billion. He is also aggressively expanding
his publicly traded Dangote Cement across the continent, announcing plans
September and October to build new
plants in Kenya and Niger at a cost of $750 million.

The second biggest gainer in dollar terms
in 2013 was Angolan investor Isabel Dos
Santos, the eldest daughter of Angola’s
president.

FORBES’ estimated of her net worth grew
by $2.8 billion during 2013 to $3.7 billion,
but not because her wealth grew
dramatically over that period. FORBES
was able to uncover and verify more
assets owned by Dos Santos, 41, between December 2012 and August 2013; and
wrote about those assets on forbes.com.
She is now Africa’s richest woman.

Nigeria’s richest woman, Folorunsho
Alakija, controls Famfa Oil Limited, an oil
exploration company that owns a
lucrative stake in the Agbami deepwater
oilfield. FORBES puts her net worth at $
2.5 billion, up from $600 million in December 2012, after she first appeared
on the FORBES list of Africa’s richest
people. Her increased net worth is a result of new information made available to Forbes on the true value of her
company’s interest in Agbami, information that has been verified by
analysts in the industry.

Africa’s wealthiest media mogul, Koos
Bekker, CEO of South Africa-based media
giant Naspers, saw his fortune nearly in
the past year –from $450 million to $1.2
billion — as a result of a huge run-up in
the stock and additional stock purchases by Bekker. Naspers’ shares rose more
than 100% in 2013.

In the case of Abdulsamad Rabiu, Africa’s
newest billionaire, we estimate he is $550
million richer than Forbes’ estimate in
December 2012, primarily because Forbes Africa was given exclusive access to new information regarding his holdings.

The full list of the biggest dollar gainers in
Africa, measured from December 31, 2012 through December 30, 2013, is below.

1. Aliko Dangote
Net Worth: $22.9 billion
Up: $10.1 billion (79%)

2. Isabel dos Santos
Net Worth: $3.7 billion
Up: $2.8 billion (311%)

3. Christo Wiese
Net Worth: $6.5 billion
Up: $2.4 billion (58.5%)

4. Folorunsho Alakija
Net Worth: $2.5 billion
Up: $1.9 billion (317%)

5. Johann Rupert
Net Worth: $7.8 billion
Up: $1.4 billion (22%)

6. Nassef Sawiris
Net Worth: $6.6 billion
Up: $1 billion (18%)

7. Mohammed Mansour
Net Worth: $3.1 billion
Up: $900 million (41%)

8. Koos Bekker
Net Worth: $1.2 billion
Up: $750 million (167%)

9. Abdulsamad Rabiu
Net Worth: $1.2 billion
Up: $550 million (85%)

10. Yasseen Mansour
Net Worth: $2.4 billion
Up: $400 million (20%)

11. Yasseen Mansour
Net Worth: $2.4 billion
Up: $400 million (20%)

12. Stephen Saad
Net Worth: $1.45 billion
Up: $350 million (31.8%)

13. Youssef Mansour
Net Worth: $2.3 billion
Up: $350 million (18%)

14. Nicky Oppenheimer
Net Worth: $6.6 billion
Up: $100 million (1.5%)

15. Mike Adenuga
Net Worth: $4.7 billion
Up: $100 million (2.2%)
[Forbes]

The rich getting richer...