South African billionaire chases Aliko Dangote for Africa’s richest position

For eleven years in a row, Nigeria’s billionaire businessman, Aliko Dangote has dominated the position of Africa’s richest man with outstanding wealth gap. It appears the Billionaire is up for a competition as South Africa’s luxury businessman pushes for the crown.

Johann Rupert, CEO of Compagnie Financiere Richemont is the new competitor for the topmost position. Johann is not new on the list of Africa’s wealthiest. In the year 2012, he was ranked fourth on the continent’s list of wealthy people.

He deals mainly in luxury goods. He owns Compagnie Financiere Richemont which is popularly known for luxury brands Cartier and Montblanc. Johann owns 7% of diversified investment firm called Remgro. He also owns 225% of Renit, an investment holding based in Luxembourg.

Currently, his wealth grew significantly to $11.5, generating a conversation of his possibility to take over from the Nigerian industrialist, Aliko Dangote whose wealth has been rated by Bloomberg’s Billionaire index to have increased to $20.4 billion.

There has been doubts of whether the South African can actually break the record because, Aliko Dangote’s upcoming refinery estimated at the cost of $19 billion was not included in his current wealth. This means that, the commencement of the refinery will skyrocket the wealth of the billionaire.