The story of African women rising to the top of their careers is proof that anything is possible with hard work and determination.
Many years ago, African Women were not permitted to work and earn their own money. They were denied the freedom to express their experiences and thoughts, especially when contrasted to their counterparts in the West.
Today’s African women are beginning to feel independent and embrace the chance to become more entrepreneurial, thanks to the influx of better educational levels. They have established their fortunes in a multitude of fields.
Many African women have demonstrated their value by rising to become Africa’s wealthiest women and employing thousands of people via the enterprises and initiatives they run.
These women are questioning the continent’s current state of things, creating footprints where none had existed before.
We find them in different professional fields, industries, and careers like business, politics, the media, science, technology, public life, and every other sector.
This article highlights some of the top richest women in Africa and their current net worth.
Isabel Dos Santos
She is currently the wealthiest woman in Africa, with a net worth of 2.8 Billion Dollars.
Isabel is the oldest daughter of the wealthy Angolan President, José Eduardo dos Santos.
The over 47 years old Isabel is a member of the Corporate boards of so many firms in Angola and Portugal. Not excluding a news company and significant Portuguese banks with oil and gemstone holdings.
She owns more than 14 per cent of a Portuguese media giant known as Zon Multimedia.
IShe also has significant holdings in the Portuguese banks, Banco Esprito Santo and Banco Português de Investimento, as well as the energy company Energias de Portugal.
She also has interests in Ciminvest, an Angolan cement firm, and Banco Africano de Investimentos.
Her investments have enabled her to become the first African woman to surpass the $1 billion mark.
According to Forbes, based on how business is handled in Angola concerning the ruling party, there is no clear-cut evidence of how she got her money. Nonetheless, the reality remains that Isabel Dos Santos is Africa’s, wealthiest woman.
Folorunsho Alakija
She is the richest woman in Nigeria and the second richest woman in Africa with a net worth of 1.5 Billion Dollars.
Folorunsho Alakija is the current Director of Rose of Sharon Group and also the Vice Chairperson of Famfa Oil, a gas and oil exploration and production firm.
She worked with Sijuwade entertainment in Nigeria, before she became a staff of the First National Bank of Chicago.
The 66-year-old woman is also a fashion Icon.
In the 1970s, she was secretary of the former International Merchant Bank of Nigeria, one of West Africa’s first financial institutions. She decided to study fashion design in the Uk before launching her Nigerian fashion label, Supreme Stitches.
In 1985, and less than a year, she had become the nation’s biggest designer.
Ngina Kenyatta
Ngina Kenyatta is into different businesses and this has helped her to make name for herself in the business world and become one of Africa’s wealthiest women.
She is the widow of Kenya’s first President, Jomo Kenyatta, and the mother of Uhuru Kenyatta. She is sometimes referred to as Mama Ngina.
Mama Ngina’s net worth is placed at 1 Billion Dollars.
The 88 years old, who is now more reclusive after protecting and promoting the family’s business. She also receives a lot of respect from Kenyan residents for her position in defending and promoting the family’s various business interests in banking, farming, education, insurance, hospitality, manufacturing, and real estate.
She is a major stakeholder in one of Kenya’s largest privately held banks, the Commercial Bank of Africa, CBA, and also a stakeholder in a hotel chain called Heritage. The list goes on and on and includes Brookside Dairies, an East African dairy sector giant with a market share that stretches from East Africa to the Middle East.
Mama Ngina is now in charge of several investments, holdings, and portfolios.
Hajia Bola Shagaya
Hajia Shagaya is a Nigerian businesswoman with a net worth of 630 Million Dollars.
The 61 years old is an entrepreneur, founder, and Chairman of Bolus Group International.
Bolus Group is multinational Nigerian cooperation with holdings in oil, real estate, finance, and communications.
She is a co-chair of Unity Bank PLC and also sits on the board of the National Economic Partnership for Africa’s Development, NEPAD, a commercial organization centred in Nigeria.
She owns so many townhouses in Nigeria’s most exclusive districts, as well as properties in Europe and the United States.
Her assets include real estate, banking, and finance, as well as oil and gas.
Wendy Appelbaum
With a net worth of 259.3 million Dollars, the 58 years old south African Entrepreneur is one of Africa’s richest women.
Appelbaum is a South African Entrepreneur who joined her father’s insurance and real estate firm, Liberty Investors. The South African millionaire is Donald Gordon’s only daughter.
She was formerly the Vice Chairman of Women’s Investment Portfolio Limited (Wiphold), the first women-dominated firm to debut on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange (JSE), with assets exceeding R1 billion. She made her own money after selling her shares.
She ventured into DeMorgenzon, a wine vineyard in Stellenbosch’s famed wine area.
In demonstrating her charitable spirit, Appelbaum has contributed more than US$23 million to the Gordon Institute of Business Science and the Donald Gordon Medical Centre in remembrance of her father.
Wendy Ackerman
A non-Executive Director of Pick N Pay Holdings Limited whose net worth is 190 Million Dollars is among the list of Africa’s wealthiest women. Wendy Ackerman is a South African Retail Mogul.
Her spouse controls almost half of the Pick n Pay supermarket business in South Africa.
She is the Executive Director of the $3 billion South African corporation, which has operations in Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Australia, Namibia, Zambia, and Mozambique.
Irene Charnley
A former Labour Unionist in South Africa with a net worth of 150 Million Dollars.
For 13 years, she worked as a negotiator for the National Union of Mineworkers in South Africa before becoming the Executive Director of MTN, Africa’s largest telecom firm.
Charnley is now the CEO of Smile Telecoms, a Mauritius-based telecommunications products firm.
She was the driving force behind MTN’s development across Africa and beyond and was instrumental in the firm’s acquisition of Nigerian and Iranian operating licenses. She, however, departed the business in 2007 amid controversy.
She was once a governor of FirstRand Bank, as well as Johnnic and Johnnic Communications, in addition to working for MTN.
Bridget Radebe
With the success of her mining business, Bridget was able to make her way into becoming one of Africa’s wealthiest women.
The founder of Mmakau Mining has a net worth of 100 million Dollars.
With her mining activities in gold, platinum, uranium, coal, chrome mining, and exploration in South Africa, the 60 years old began her successful career as a mine worker, overcoming gender inequalities in the process.
She is now the president of the South African Mining Development Association and wedded to the South African Minister of Justice, Jeff Radebe.
Radebe’s network isn’t well-known, although she did get the Global Foundation for Democracy’s International Businessperson of the Year Award in 2008.
Sharon Wapmick
Sharon Wapmick is among the largest individual owners in listed lending stock businesses, Octodec Investments and Premium Properties, both created by her father Alec.
Wapmick is a partner at TWB Attorneys, a business legal practice in Johannesburg. Her net worth is 43.1 million dollars.
Her wealth was amassed through investments and real estate. She took over as non-executive chairman of Octodec in October 2011, after her father. She is an attorney with a lot of expertise in the real estate market.
Elizabeth Bradley
She is the daughter of Albert Wessels, the man that brought Toyota to South Africa in 1961.
Her fortune is gotten from investments in businesses and assets and her network is 32 million Dollars.
She is the chairperson of Wesco Investments South Africa and vice-chairman of Toyota South Africa Limited.
Elizabeth is also a board member of blue-chip corporations including Standard Bank Group, Hilton Hotel, and Rosebank Inn, and a director of AngloGold.
In 2008, Bradley’s holding firm, Wesco Investments, sold a 25 per cent share in Toyota South Africa to Toyota Motor Corporation of Japan for 320 million Dollars, with Bradley pocketing at least 150 million Dollars.
