<h6>SHERYL SANDBERG</h6>
<h6>$1.05 billion</h6>
<h6>US, Self-made</h6>
<h6>Age: 44</h6>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-6121" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FWA-2014-Apr-May-032-035-FLIST-Billionaires-001-188x300.jpg" alt="" width="188" height="300" /></p>
<p>In the world of self-made, hoodie-wearing technology billionaires, Sheryl Sandberg has pulled off something improbable: She has joined their ranks without founding her own company or writing a single line of code. The fact that Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer is a woman is incidental, of course, but it’s also noteworthy: Of the 268 newcomers to the 2014 FORBES Billionaires list, 42 are women – a single year record and, more notably, the highest-ever percentage of newcomers (and of women billionaires overall – 172 out of 1,645). That’s progress. But only a bit. Only 32 billionaire women – or 1.9% of all the globe’s billionaires – had a meaningful hand in building their own fortunes, as opposed to inheriting one from a parent or husband. Sandberg joins the dozen women, including Spanx’s Sara Blakely, fashion designer Tory Burch and Oprah Winfrey, who accomplished this feat without the help of a husband or sibling. And only she and Meg Whitman, who worked at Hasbro and FTD before joining eBay, accomplished this feat as hired hands of tech companies. Thus Sandberg’s perspective, distilled in her bestseller, Lean In, seems doubly apt. In a recent interview with FORBES she said she was “real optimistic” about the dialogue and debate generated by her book, which exhorts professional women to pour more energy into their careers, stop tolerating that high achievers are termed “bossy” while their male counterparts are praised as “aggressive”, and pick partners who will share in parenting and household duties.</p>
<p>“Businesses are going to care about diversity not because they want to do good in the world,” says Sandberg. “They’re going to care about diversity if it’s going to change their bottom line.” She says that she hosts private “Lean In Circles” and, in her book, advocates for others to do the same. Over dinner at her home, other leading women hear from special guests. One speaker: Cisco CEO John Chambers.</p>
<p>“What he understood is that it wasn’t about having women in your company but about having women in leadership roles. If you have the best talent, you’re going to have the best performance.” That presumably will translate to more women like Sandberg shattering the ten-figure ceiling.</p>
<h6>Folorunsho AlakIja</h6>
<h6>$2.5 billion</h6>
<h6>Nigeria, Self-made</h6>
<h6>Age: 63</h6>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-6122" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FWA-2014-Apr-May-032-035-FLIST-Billionaires-002-212x300.jpg" alt="" width="212" height="300" /></p>
<p>Daughter of a wealthy man who had eight wives and 52 children, Alakija is Nigeria’s first female billionaire, thanks to her own lucrative oil-producing asset. After working as a secretary in a Nigerian merchant bank in the 1970s, Alakija quit her job to study fashion design in England. She subsequently founded Supreme Stitches, a Nigerian fashion label that catered to upscale clientele, which reportedly included Maryam Babangida, wife to Nigeria’s former military president Ibrahim Babangida. The government awarded her an oil-prospecting license for a 620,000-acre plot in 1993. She hired Texaco to assess the oil potential three years later, creating Famfa Oil. It went on to become OML 127, one of Nigeria’s most prolifc oil blocks. Famfa Oil owned a 60% stake in the block until 2000, when then President Olusegun Obasanjo tried to take back as much as a 50% interest. Famfa Oil went to court to challenge the acquisition. The Nigerian Supreme Court reinstated the stake to Famfa Oil in May 2012; it is now the bulk of her fortune. Says Alakija of her fate: “My entry into this [oil] business was God’s own way of leading me down a particular path.”</p>
<h6>denISe CoaTeS</h6>
<h6>$1.6 billion</h6>
<h6>UK, Self-made</h6>
<h6>Age: 46</h6>
<div id="attachment_6116" style="width: 210px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-6116" class="size-medium wp-image-6116" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FWA-2014-Apr-May-032-035-FLIST-Billionaires-003-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" /><p id="caption-attachment-6116" class="wp-caption-text">Denise Coates, chief executive of Bet 365</p>
<p></p></div>
<p>While still in school, Coates worked for her father, Peter, as a cashier crunching numbers in his betting shops. She finished school, trained as an accountant and then took over some of those shops, turning around their fortunes before selling them to large bookmaker Coral. She had noticed the success of online gambling businesses around the time of the dot-com boom and steered her family in that direction. In 2000, she bought the domain Bet365.com and launched the website in March 2001 after being shunned by traditional venture capitalists. Today, she is joint CEO (with her brother John) of online betting firm Bet365 and is by far its largest shareholder, with a 50.3% stake. Sales hit $1.6 billion last year for Bet365, which also owns British Premier League soccer team Stoke City. Her fortune comes primarily from her stake in the private betting company (based in Stoke-on-Trent) and dividends earned from over 13 years of operation.</p>
<h6>AerIn Lauder Zinterhofer</h6>
<h6>$1.1 billion</h6>
<h6>US, Inherited</h6>
<h6>Age: 44</h6>
<div id="attachment_6117" style="width: 233px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-6117" class="size-medium wp-image-6117" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FWA-2014-Apr-May-032-035-FLIST-Billionaires-004-223x300.jpg" alt="" width="223" height="300" /><p id="caption-attachment-6117" class="wp-caption-text">167080839SH00055_The_Americ</p></div>
<p>The much-watched style maven joins the rich list thanks to the surging value of her stake in the $10 billion (sales) Estée Lauder cosmetics firm, founded by her late grandmother. The elder daughter of philanthropist and World Jewish Congress leader Ronald Lauder, she now presides over her own lifestyle empire. In 2012, she launched her eponymous brand, Aerin, starting with makeup (of course) and now encompassing perfume, accessories, jewelry and even decor, fabrics and lighting for those wishing to emulate her modern Manhattan-via-East Hampton aesthetic. While the beauty line was launched in collaboration with Estée Lauder, she operates the rest as a separate company. She remains image and style director at her family’s conglomerate, where she has worked for over two decades, starting during summer breaks from the University of Pennsylvania. Lauder often mentions her grandmother in interviews and recently tweeted a favorite saying of Estée’s: “I didn’t get there by wishing for it or hoping for it, but by working for it.” She’s married to her college sweetheart, Eric Zinterhofer, a Harvard M.B.A. who cofounded private equity firm Searchlight Capital in 2010 after 12 years at billionaire Leon Black’s investment powerhouse, Apollo.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h6>jane lauder</h6>
<h6>$1.15 billion</h6>
<h6>US, Inherited</h6>
<h6>Age: 41</h6>
<div id="attachment_6118" style="width: 210px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-6118" class="size-medium wp-image-6118" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FWA-2014-Apr-May-032-035-FLIST-Billionaires-005-200x300.jpg" alt="" width="200" height="300" /><p id="caption-attachment-6118" class="wp-caption-text">FINANCO RETAIL</p></div>
<p>The granddaughter of cosmetics legend Estée Lauder became America’s youngest female billionaire in 2013, joining the ranks following a transfer of shares in the family cosmetics empire. In April, Lauder will take the helm at Clinique, a mall-staple skin-care line and one of the 30 brands under the Estée Lauder umbrella. Her new gig as global brand president marks the culmination of 18 years at her late grandmother’s company; she joined in 1996, a year after graduating from Stanford. Before being appointed to run Clinique, she oversaw business at natural-makeup company Origins. She replaced her father, Ronald, on the Estée Lauder board in 2009 and now serves alongside big sister Aerin and cousin William. Her husband, Kevin Warsh, also a Stanford grad, was the youngest-ever appointee to the Federal Reserve Board; he’s currently a visiting fellow at their alma mater’s Hoover Institution. The couple lives in Manhattan’s trendy Nolita.</p>
<h6>Carrie Perrodo</h6>
<h6>$10 billion</h6>
<h6>France, Inherited</h6>
<h6>Age: 63</h6>
<p>Singapore native Ka Yee (Carrie) Wong was already a top model when she met French entrepreneur Hubert Perrodo in the early 1970s. At the time, Perrodo was traveling the world drilling for oil and gas. Soon they got married. Sharing the entrepreneurial bug, Carrie launched her own agency, Carrie Models, while Hubert started his first business. In time, Perrodo formed Perenco, which has become one of the world’s biggest family-owned oil companies, with estimated annual revenues of $6 billion and far-flung operations in the likes of Gabon, Peru and Cameroon. Hubert and Carrie enjoyed the good life; he was a keen polo player and wine lover who bought up Bordeaux vineyards, including Château Labégorce. Perrodo died in 2006 while hiking in the Alps. Carrie and her three children, François, Nathalie and Bertrand, are heirs to the company, though a breakdown of their stakes is not clear. François now chairs the company and likes to race cars. Nathalie oversees the wine investments. Carrie sold Carrie Models years ago, but the agency remains active to this day.</p>
<h6>Sandra ortega Mera</h6>
<h6>$6.1 billion</h6>
<h6>Spain, Inherited</h6>
<h6>Age: 46</h6>
<div id="attachment_6120" style="width: 238px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-6120" class="size-medium wp-image-6120" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/FWA-2014-Apr-May-032-035-FLIST-Billionaires-007-228x300.jpg" alt="" width="228" height="300" /><p id="caption-attachment-6120" class="wp-caption-text">OLEIROS, SPAIN &#8211; AUGUST 17: Sandra Ortega Mera, daughter of Amancio Ortega and Rosalia Mera, attends her mother funeral on August 17, 2013 in Oleiros, Spain. (Photo by Xurxo Lobato/Getty Images)</p></div>
<p>A daughter of Inditex clothing retailer Amancio Ortega, the world’s third-richest person, Ortega Mera enters the ranks sooner than she had hoped, taking the place of her late mother, Rosalia Mera, who died suddenly of a brain hemorrhage while on vacation with Sandra last August. Her parents, who started the apparel business in their living room, divorced long ago. While her half-sister Marta works at her father’s investment arm, Ortega Mera devotes her time to Fundación Paideia, the non-profit her mother started to support vocational training for people with mental and physical disabilities. (Her brother Marcos, who shares the fortune, has cerebral palsy.) She has a psychology degree from the Universidad de Santiago and lives in the Galician town of La Coruña, on the Atlantic coast, with her husband and three kids.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>


The Class Of 2014 Leans In

<p>The wealthiest women in the US have gotten even richer over the past year. Buoyed by a strong stock market and rising real estate prices, the combined net worth of the ten richest women on The Forbes 400 is $156.6 billion, up from $124.2 billion last year.</p>
<p>Altogether there are 48 women on this year’s Forbes 400 list of richest Americans, up from 45 last year. Newcomers include Elaine Marshall, who inherited a stake in private conglomerate Koch Industries from her late husband, and Anne Gittinger, granddaughter of the co-founder of Nordstrom  department stores.</p>
<p>Another new woman is a longtime Forbes 400 member: James Pritzker, a former lieutenant colonel in the army and an heir to the extended Chicago Pritzker family fortune, announced in August that she will now be known as Jennifer Pritzker. That makes her the first transgender billionaire. Pritzker runs the Pritzker Military Library in Chicago.</p>
<div id="attachment_5799" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-5799" class="size-medium wp-image-5799" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/006-Lauren-Powell-Jobs-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" /><p id="caption-attachment-5799" class="wp-caption-text">Lauren Powell Jobs</p></div>
<p>The wealthiest woman in America, Christy Walton, is also the world’s richest woman, with a net worth Forbes pegs at $35.4 billion. Walton inherited a stake in retailer Wal-Mart and a chunk of stock in solar firm First Solar FSLR -1.23% when her husband, John Walton, died in a plane crash in 2005.</p>
<p>Walton ranks 6th on The Forbes 400 list. She leads a very private life in Jackson, Wyoming but in August had a rare bit of publicity when was given an award by the Imagen Foundation for producing the film Bless Me, Ultima, based on the book by Rudolfo Anaya, who is considered the father of Chicano literature. Walton, aged 59, has faced a number of difficulties in her life in addition to her husband’s death. Her son – her only child – battled cancer when he was just three years old and she fought a case of pneumonia that nearly killed her, according to the Imagen Foundation.</p>
<p>America’s second-richest woman is Alice Walton, sister-in-law of Christy Walton and daughter of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton. Forbes puts her net worth at $33.5 billion, a fortune mostly comprised of stock she inherited in Wal-Mart and her art collection. She ranks 8th on The Forbes 400. Alice Walton opened the Crystal Springs Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas in 2011, and it has proved to be a popular attraction, already clocking 1 million visitors.</p>
<div id="attachment_5801" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-5801" class="size-medium wp-image-5801" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/004-Abigain-Johnson-300x229.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="229" /><p id="caption-attachment-5801" class="wp-caption-text">Abigain Johnson</p></div>
<p>Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Apple founder Steve Jobs, ranks 35th on The Forbes 400. She is the richest woman in Silicon Valley and is the 6th richest woman on the list, with a net worth of $11.7 billion.</p>
<p>Women still make up a minority of The Forbes 400 richest – just 12% of this elite group. Most of the women inherited their fortunes; only seven of the 45 started their own businesses or co-founded them with their husbands.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>


The richest women in America 2013

<p>George Weah, the Liberian soccer legend-turned- politician, barrels out onto the sports field dressed in an electric-blue jersey. Flanked by his entourage, tussling photographers and journalists, the towering 48 year old rolls forth with the Ballon d’Or, the trophy he claimed in 1995 while playing for AC Milan, hoisted on his broad shoulders. The crowd roars and his long-time political rival, Liberia’s formidable commander-in-chief President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, follows behind dressed in a black and white lapa suit.</p>
<p>Weah and Johnson Sirleaf deliver muffled messages about reconciliation and the president’s column-like security guard, wearing aviator sunglasses, raises the glinting solid-gold ball into the overcast sky. Weah, the only African to win the prize, did so during the heat of Liberia’s civil war that raged for 14 years and left 250,000 dead, the nation’s infrastructure in ruins and its people deeply traumatized. The soccer star hauled the prize back from his home in Florida in the United States, where he spends at least half of his time, as a symbol of peace.</p>
<p>Retired and current soccer celebrities from across the continent and government officials take to the field for a friendly match organized by Weah, who last December accepted his appointment by Johnson Sirleaf as peace ambassador. Weah is now the face of the government’s latest attempt to reconcile a nation that remains deeply divided a decade after the gunfire ceased and former president Charles Taylor went into exile. But among the spectators it is clear, reconciliation or not, their main purpose is to see Weah, or King George as he is known to Liberians.</p>
<div id="attachment_31208" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-31208" class="size-medium wp-image-31208" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/20130622-wingard-0623-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/20130622-wingard-0623-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/20130622-wingard-0623-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/20130622-wingard-0623-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/20130622-wingard-0623.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /><p id="caption-attachment-31208" class="wp-caption-text">Monrovia, Liberia &#8211; June 22, 2013: Football game organized by George Weah at SKD. (Photograph by Morgana Wingard).</p></div>
<p>After a failed attempt at the presidency in 2005 and the vice presidency in 2011, Weah is now tasked with helping drive forward the stalled process to reunite the nation. Many Liberians remain cynical about the reconciliation process after a controversial Truth and Reconciliation Commission, whose findings and recommendations were sidelined because of legal issues and the indictment of those among the political establishment. This is a major challenge that Weah has to confront.</p>
<p>A new 18-year reconciliation roadmap has been launched placing an emphasis on restorative, rather than retributive, justice.</p>
<p>The reconciliation process suffered a blow last year when peace activist Leymah Gbowee, who was also the head of a previous initiative, resigned after criticizing Johnson Sirleaf of nepotism and her failure to address present-day issues such as corruption. In a statement, Gbowee referred to “differences in opinion on the pathway for national healing and reconciliation” as her reason for stepping down.</p>
<p>When asked whether he is concerned about the reasons for Gbowee’s resignation, Weah says: “She took a long time to notice that.”</p>
<p>Weah’s critics say that he is not capable of the role and that he was appointed to appease young Liberians who are angry with Johnson Sirleaf’s government.</p>
<p>Critics such as Dan Saryee, a Liberian democracy and rights activist, says that Weah lacks a vision for national reconciliation. “Reconciliation is not just about having a sports jamboree. Sports do not address the reconciliation concerns of a farmer in Grand Kru, Gbarpolu or a fisherman in River Cess or Bassa.”</p>
<p>But Weah is confident that his previous work as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador during the civil conflict, his role in helping encourage former fighters and child soldiers to disarm and his rapport with ordinary Liberians was the reason he was chosen by the president and why he is the best man for the job.</p>
<p>“I was the right person, because of the love that people have for me, and the way I can persuade people. I accepted it because this is the country I love. I want to see the country peaceful and stable,” Weah tells FORBES AFRICA in an exclusive interview at his residence in Rehab, a suburb on the outskirts of Monrovia.</p>
<p>In the coming months, Weah will embark on a ‘Listening Tour’ across 16 counties to talk to Liberians about their grievances and also facilitate dialogue between tribes that have been in conflict in the past, before forwarding his findings to the government. A similar exercise was undertaken by Gbowee during her time as head of the reconciliation initiative.</p>
<p>Weah is seen by many of his supporters as a man of the masses, the less-than-a-dollar-a-day Liberians who eke out an existence in a society that still remains deeply polarized economically.</p>
<p>Born and raised by his grandmother in a slum in Bushrod Island, and discovered and nurtured by President Samuel Doe, who was brutally executed at the beginning of the war, Weah represents an impossible dream, but nevertheless a dream for Liberians, who until the end of the conflict in 2003, had little to hope for.</p>
<p>“His is the only face we see to redeem us,” says Samuel Kun, a 28-year-old sociology student at the University of Liberia.</p>
<p>“Weah is from the ghetto so he knows what we are going through and he can [empathize] with us.</p>
<p>If he’s our president I’m sure things can change, it might not be constant but I’m sure he will do his best.”</p>
<p>Weah’s home in Monrovia is nothing like the one in which he grew up. Concertina wire crowns the high maroon wall that surrounds his compound and is manned by guards wearing blue polo shirts and sports caps that read ‘security’.</p>
<p>I interview Weah in a lounge room overlooking a tiled pool, and fitted with the trappings of masculine affluence—a wooden bar, a pool table, a flat-screen TV, modern black couches backed by a window that looks out onto three luxury cars. Weah wears a crème shirt with jeans and a fitted charcoal suit jacket and holds his pair of reading glasses in his hand. I ask whether his loafers are Gucci.</p>
<p>“That’s hard work, not government money,” he responds sharply.</p>
<p>Regardless of Weah’s flamboyant lifestyle, he is seen as one of the few Liberians to have earned his riches the honest way—through hard work, success, talent and a bit of good luck—in a country where the political class and those in power are still largely viewed as a league of rogues. In 2012, Transparency International named Liberia and Mongolia as the most corrupt countries in the world in its Global Corruption Barometer.</p>
<p>Many of Weah’s supporters are deeply suspicious of the government and its commitment to reconciliation and are concerned this could be a trap for the political leader, who is tipped to be among the leading presidential candidates in 2017. Even within Weah’s party, the decision was met with many dissenting opinions.</p>
<p>Some opposition leaders and analysts have argued that Johnson Sirleaf is setting Weah up for failure to destroy his political future.</p>
<p>But Weah dismisses claims that he is being used as a political pawn and says that he will step down if he thinks the government lacks commitment to reconciliation and is attempting to silence him.</p>
<p>“We have to monitor their actions […] I’m not going to sit aside because I am the peace ambassador if the government does things that aren’t right. I think by now you should know I have character.”</p>
<div id="attachment_31207" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-31207" class="size-medium wp-image-31207" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/20130622-wingard-0138-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/20130622-wingard-0138-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/20130622-wingard-0138-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/20130622-wingard-0138-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/20130622-wingard-0138.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /><p id="caption-attachment-31207" class="wp-caption-text">Monrovia, Liberia &#8211; June 22, 2013: Football game organized by George Weah at SKD. (Photograph by Morgana Wingard).</p></div>
<p>He also says the debate over the Truth and Reconciliation Commission should be reopened.</p>
<p>Weah says he is aware of the challenges ahead and the level of resentment and dissatisfaction among Liberians, many of whom who do not have an affordable life. These are challenges that are beyond the ethnic divisions and human rights abuses that characterized the brutal civil war. Less than two 2% of Liberians have access to pipe borne water, a mere 0.58% of people have access to public electricity, and 76% of the population live on less than a dollar a day.</p>
<p>“Peace for me is equitable distribution of the national wealth; peace for me means true justice,” says Weah.</p>
<p>Weah is optimistic about the future of the reconciliation process but some argue his entry into the 2014 senatorial race could get in the way.</p>
<p>“If he does run as a senator it means that his role within the reconciliation roadmap may be diminished. Weah could use this platform to mobilize more votes,” says Edward Mulbah, the senior technical advisor at the Liberia Peacebuilding Office, the body charged with organizing reconciliation activities.</p>
<p>But for now, Weah says there is no conflict between his political ambitions and role as peace ambassador.</p>
<p>The 2011 elections that Weah participated in underlined the urgent need for reconciliation. The Congress for Democratic Change (CDC) boycotted the run-off claiming they had won the first round, a claim that was reinforced by a letter by the National Elections Commission declaring them winners. That body later claimed the letter was a mistake. The day before the elections, they staged a demonstration during which police fired live rounds and killed at least one demonstrator and injured others. Johnson Sirleaf won by 90.6 % of the vote due to a low voter turnout, that the International Crisis Group (ICG) argues was due to fears of escalating violence. The Carter Center election monitoring team deemed the elections free and fair with some irregularities. This was the second time Weah had cried foul during an election.</p>
<p>“I still maintain that there was no transparency, there was no true democracy,” claims Weah.</p>
<p>Analysts predict that Weah will have a landslide victory in the Montserrado senatorial race, the most populous county in Liberia and one that is his party’s political stronghold.</p>
<p>If he succeeds in next year’s race, Weah will become senator of a county that is home to over 1.5 million people, 70% of who are estimated to live in slums like the one he grew up in. Weah’s childhood community of Geblah Town underlines the challenges that lie ahead. I travel to the cramped community, along rain-slicked, potholed roads, passing people drawing filthy water from square concrete wells and drainage overflowing with waste. There I meet Philip Sayon Jr, a 20-year-old CDC supporter and university student. Sayon is optimistic that things will change if Weah becomes president.</p>
<p>“He loves his Liberian people; he knows the soil from which he came from; he passed a lot of difficulties. He will give the people a chance,” he says.</p>
<p>While Weah is yet to make his real debut in the political arena, the expectations of his performance are huge.   FL</p>


20130625-wingard-0124

Chasing A THROUGH BALL TO POWER

<p>What is it?</p>
<p>A set of reforms to improve regulation, supervision and risk management in the banking sector.</p>
<p>Why do we need it?</p>
<p>The financial system is regulated to protect investors, ensure the solvency and soundness of financial institutions, keep efficiency and transparency in the markets as well as ensure a stable financial system. Regulators are there to reduce the risk of failure and contain any situations that occur. Micro-prudential regulation aims to limit the risks within intermediaries in order to reduce the possibility of an individual institution’s failure. This is the traditional regulation used before the 2007-2009 crisis, but failed to prevent systemic risks.</p>
<p>The financial crisis showed that not all institutions held sufficient capital and that the quality of the capital was sometimes poor and not available to absorb losses as they materialized.</p>
<p>Macro-prudential regulation aims to make institutions internalize the costs that their behavior imposes on others. It is now the focus of global regulators. Capital requirements may vary according to the intermediary’s contribution to systemic risk or with the business cycle—with a higher requirement in upswings to create a capital buffer against shocks. Institutions may also be required to take out extra insurance or to issue contingent convertible bonds. Due to macro-prudential regulation, some progress has been made in moving the world’s over the counter (OTC) derivatives markets to a centralized infrastructure.</p>
<p>Where does it come from? Capital requirements monitor a bank’s balance sheet by requiring that they hold a minimum level of capital and restricting the types of assets a bank can hold. The idea is that the capital buffer will help institutions absorb shocks and losses without going insolvent. Under the risk-based capital requirements of the Basel accord of 1988, minimum capital standards were linked to off-balance-sheet activities such as loan commitments and trading positions in futures and options. The Basel accord required that banks hold capital of at least 8% of their risk-weighted assets (RWA). Basel II tweaked the capital requirement to be based on the assets held by the individual bank. It however didn’t place enough importance on macro-prudential and systemic risk.</p>
<p>What changes does it bring?</p>
<p>The reforms in Basel III include a new definition of capital. The revisions made to raise Tier 1 capital’s quality and quantity (now 6%) should help prevent financial institution insolvency. Those in Tier 2, simplifying and reducing it to 2% of RWA, will help make sure depositors and senior creditors are repaid should failure occur. Tier 3 capital was removed all together. Aside from increased capital requirements, Basel III introduces stressed value-at-risk capital requirements for re-securitization; the introduction of a capital charge for potential mark-to-market losses and higher capital requirements for OTC derivatives.</p>
<p>The introduction of a leverage ratio, to be used in addition to the risk-based capital framework of Basel II, will be up to individual regulatory bodies to apply at their discretion.  The proposed new global liquidity standard entails a liquidity coverage ratio that requires the availability of high-quality and highly-liquid assets to exceed the net cash outflows of the next 30 days. This is to ensure that institutions can survive strain that may last up to 30 days. The other component of the new standard is the net stable funding ratio, requiring long-term financial resources to exceed long-term commitments.</p>
<p>Instability arises when banks have used short-term liabilities to finance long-term assets—resulting in what we call a liquidity and maturity mismatch—and market liquidity dries up due to a shock, such as a sudden reversal in capital flow. Banks will then be forced to sell off assets, leading to downward movements in prices. This places the entire system at risk.</p>
<p>Basel III will also introduce two new capital buffers: a 2.5% capital conservation buffer and a countercyclical buffer of 0-2.5%.</p>
<p>What happens next?</p>
<p>Global regulators have yet to agree on a way to deal with the “too big to fail” institutions. The “too big to fail” concept refers to the largest institutions, who’s failure would surely lead to the entire financial system crumbling. After the recent crisis, some of these banks consolidated to create even bigger ones. Since they know that they will not be allowed to fail they feel like they can take greater risks.</p>
<p>The implementation deadline for Basel III is 2019.   FL</p>


dreamstime_m_285364331

Basel III

<p>It’s been just over a year since I packed up my life in South Africa to return to the country of my birth. As the plane hit the tarmac at the Murtala Mohammed Airport in Lagos, I knew I was back. The humid heat of the city welcomed me home with a slap, as did my struggle through immigration and my search for a cell phone signal so I could find my driver amid the multitude.</p>
<p>In the two hours home on the gridlocked highway, where I luckily managed to grab my dinner from the hawkers, a mild trepidation slowly sank in. This was it; I was home and needed some sort of returnee boot camp.</p>
<p>If you think this is one of those pieces where a Nigerian returnee whines about the ills of the country, think again. Yes, Lagos is traffic-plagued, crowded, highly polluted and will probably have even the bald and patient pulling their hair out as they wait for business meetings, but I love this city. Lagos is a place with rare energy, where each day injects a fierce lucidity that recharges the soul. In this column I want to give you a feel of this buzz, this electricity; a tapestry of arts and soul. I want to lead you through the best nightspots in Africa. From the sweet sounds of highlife music, jazz saxophones and art galleries that tell a tale like no other; to beer parlours with the best pepper soup in the world. From the lavish lives of the high and mighty to the infectious drive of the street vendor.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-31092" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/chefbialeddine-300x116.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="116" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/chefbialeddine-300x116.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/chefbialeddine-600x231.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/chefbialeddine-768x296.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/chefbialeddine.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></p>
<p>On Monday morning in Lagos, the streets swarm with white-collared young, energetic executives, suited up in the heat, tablet in hand, rushing from meeting to meeting. Boardrooms brim with the pulse of change in this land of opportunities.</p>
<p>Patches of mustard-yellow are spattered across the city centre as commercial buses and taxis honk  fiercely at each other, competing for a place on the road with the ‘tut-tut’ BRT buses and private cars, while the market slowly comes to life with stores laying their wares out for a beehive of new customers on the roadside. This day, is not any less important and eventful than the next few.</p>
<p>On Friday evening, men in tailored traditional outfits hunch over bars at the best spots around the city, while half empty bottles of cognac and champagne loll on the table amid boisterous baritone cheers and pulsing Nigerian tunes. This is where the real business deals begin.</p>
<p>Across the road at a posh lounge, ladies with their fancy hairstyles, all with Ankara skirts and designer handbags, cocktail in the right hand, blackberry in the other, plot their next move. The night is still young and promising–for both for the ladies and the bartenders.</p>
<p>A few hours later, as the rich and famous crawl out of the busiest night clubs into the hazy light where their newest Range Rovers sit, there are chewing gum hawkers and parking attendants asking, with their best smiles beaming, “Oga/madame, anything for us?” Have I mentioned opportunities enough in this piece?</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-31091 alignleft" src="http://www.forbesafrica.com/app/uploads/2017/05/Ann-Ogunsulire-Prof.-Wole-Soyinka-Tolu-Ogunlesi-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Ann-Ogunsulire-Prof.-Wole-Soyinka-Tolu-Ogunlesi-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Ann-Ogunsulire-Prof.-Wole-Soyinka-Tolu-Ogunlesi-600x400.jpg 600w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Ann-Ogunsulire-Prof.-Wole-Soyinka-Tolu-Ogunlesi-768x512.jpg 768w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Ann-Ogunsulire-Prof.-Wole-Soyinka-Tolu-Ogunlesi.jpg 1024w" sizes="(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px" /></p>
<p>Wedding convoys trail across the city incessantly on a Saturday morning. Lagos is a wedding planner’s Utopia as no weekend goes by in this city without a few nuptials, each one grander than the other. Women are geared up in their towering headties, men in their best kaftans, agbadas and caps, while live bands perform as celebrants and friends are sprayed with cold-hard cash on the dancefloor. From  morning till dusk, it is nothing but a fancy affair. Multimillion-dollar yachts and motorboats tear up and down the creek between the main Lagos islands as the quieter gentlemen come out to play with their toys. They are on their way to private beach-houses on a Sunday afternoon, because they can. Tomorrow is Monday and we have to play before then.</p>
<p>Whichever way you look at it, Lagos is a layered, bitter-sweet dish of rich culture, tastefully infused with a hint of class and laced with plenty of grit for texture.</p>
<p>This is Lagos, my Lagos.</p>


IMG_7759-copy

Working Hard Playing Harder

<p>Our annual snapshot of the 100 women with the most impact are top politicians and CEOs, activist billionaires and celebrities who matter. In roughly equal measure you’ll find next gen entrepreneurs and media mavens, technologists and leaders in philanthropy – all ranked by dollars, media momentum and impact.</p>
<p>We’ve selected women that go beyond the traditional taxonomy of the power elite (political and economic might). These change-agents are actually shifting our very idea of clout and authority and, in the process, transforming the world in fresh and exhilarating ways.</p>
<p>This year the list features nine heads of state who run nations with a combined GDP of $11.8 trillion –including the No. 1 Power Woman, German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The 24 corporate CEOs control $893 billion in annual revenues, and 16 of the women here founded their own companies, including two of the three new billionaires to the list, Tory Burch and Spanx’s Sara Blakely. Speaking of, this year’s class has 14 billionaires valued in excess of $82 billion.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-5693" src="/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/FWA-2013-Oct-012-019-MOU-Top-100-006-197x300.jpg" alt="" width="197" height="300" /></p>
<h4>Here, a quick peek at Power Women 2013:</h4>
<p>Newcomers: Among the 15 newcomers on this year’s list are South Korean President Park Geun-hye (No. 11); Lockheed Martin LMT +0.52% CEO Marillyn Hewson (No. 34); CEO Tory Burch (No. 69);  Spanx founder Sara Blakely (No. 90) and Baidu BIDU -1.28% CFO Jennifer Li (No. 98).</p>
<p>Old friends: At this 10th edition, attention must be paid to the 15 who appeared on the inaugural list in 2004 and are still here today:  Oprah Winfrey(No. 13), of course. Ditto for Hillary Clinton (No. 5). But there’s also  Christine Lagarde (No. 7),  Sonia Gandhi (No. 9), Indra Nooyi (No. 10), Helen Clark(No. 21), Nancy Pelosi (No. 22), Anne Sweeney (No. 24), Amy Pascal (No. 36), Queen Elizabeth II (No. 40), Abigail Johnson (No. 60),  Ho Ching (No. 64),Diane Sawyer (No. 73), J.K. Rowling (No. 93) andGreta Van Susteren (No. 97).</p>
<p>She’s No. 1: Chancellor Merkel has made the list eight times out of the past 10 years – seven times as No. 1.</p>
<p>She’s the first: Forty percent  of the women on the list are “female firsts,” such as African head of state (Liberia’s Ellen Johnson Sirleaf), billionaire to sign The Giving Pledge (Sara Blakeley), and CEO at IBM (Ginni Rometty). Even more impressive are a the women who are multiple “firsts”, such as Judith Rodin, first president of an Ivy League and of the Rockefeller Foundation  and Hillary Clinton.</p>
<p>Hillary stays on: Clinton’s CV is chock full of firsts: The only first lady to become a U.S. senator turned viable presidential candidate turned secretary of state. Now a private citizen, she continues to be one of the most watched and listened-to women on the planet. All bets on that she will be the 2016 Democratic presidential candidate and the free world’s presumptive next leader. She’s done little to quiet the chatter, including hitting the speaking circuit last month at an estimated $200,000 fee per event and inking a reported $14 million book deal.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-5696" src="/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/FWA-2013-Oct-012-019-MOU-Top-100-008-202x300.jpg" alt="" width="202" height="300" /></p>
<p>Tech takes a second turn as a category on the Power Women list. Five tech women made the top 25 this year, including Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg (No. 6), Rometty (No. 12) and HP’s Meg Whitman (No. 15). There are 16 tech women in total, including also Susan Wojcicki, SVP of ads at Google (No. 30) and Sun Yafang, chair of Huawei Technologies (No. 77).</p>
<p>in South Africa. Joining the efforts of the U.N. are Angelina Jolie (No. 37), Shakira (No. 52), and Gisele Bundchen (No. 95). Beyonce (No. 17) rules the House of Dereon and Sofia Vergara (No. 38) co-owns LatinWE.</p>
<p>Businesswomen are booming in Asia: The whole region makes a strong showing, from China and Singapore to New Zealand and Thailand. Entrepreneurship is on the rise: see Zhang Xin (No. 50), The rising tide of female entrepreneurs:</p>
<p>A remarkable number of women are founders or owners of their own enterprises, not a few of whose eponymous companies are synonymous with high fashion. Consider Miuccia Prada (No. 58), Zara founder Rosalia Mera (No. 66), Tory Burch (No. 69) andDiane von Furstenberg (No. 74). Other self-made self-starters include Oprah Winfrey (No. 13), Arianna Huffington (No. 56), Chinese real estate tycoonZhang Xin (No. 50), and Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, India’s first biotech entrepreneur (No. 85).</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-5697" src="/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/FWA-2013-Oct-012-019-MOU-Top-100-012-300x210.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="210" /></p>
<p>The new celebrity role models: Sure, they’re famous but they deserve special attention for their outside work, be it ambassadors for meaningful causes or as business owners.</p>
<p>Oprah founded both Harpo Productions and The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls Sun Yafang (No. 77) and Solina Chau (No. 80). And Asian region women are showing their political might, from newcomer Park Geun-hye, the South Korean president (No. 11) and Burmese dissident and parliamentarian Aung San Suu Kyi (No. 29) to Australian PM Julia Gillard (No. 28) and Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra (No. 31).</p>
<p>Healing, feeding and educating the world: If they’re not topping corporations or state, the women on our list are heads of major nonprofits and NGOs and they wield as large budgets and impact millions, from Melinda Gates (No. 3) and IMF chief Christine Lagarde (No. 7) to Director-General of World Health Organization Margaret Chan (No. 33), World Food ProgrammeExecutive Director Ertharin Cousin (No. 49) and Harvard University’s Drew Gilpin Faust (No. 43).</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-5698" src="/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/FWA-2013-Oct-012-019-MOU-Top-100-003-217x300.jpg" alt="" width="217" height="300" /></p>
<h4>Joyce Banda</h4>
<p>Malawi’s first female president (and second on the African continent) spent her initial year in office pushing for rapprochement with the international donor community while grappling with spiraling inflation and an angry populace at home. With foreign aid accounting for nearly 40% of Malawi’s revenue, Banda urged global financial institutions to restore the dollars and Euros frozen during the autocratic regime of her predecessor. But her decision to devalue Malawi’s currency by 50% – to meet IMF conditions – has resulted in soaring costs for food and fuel and widespread protests. Her first 12 months were also marked by progress in decriminalizing homosexuality and major public health initiatives such as the $15 billion Global Fund to Fight Aids, TB and Malaria.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-5691" src="/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/FWA-2013-Oct-012-019-MOU-Top-100-004-203x300.jpg" alt="" width="203" height="300" /></p>
<h4>Sri Mulyani Indrawati</h4>
<p>When Sri Mulyani Indrawati addressed the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in April, the Indonesian economist shared a curious insight: while high-income countries continue to suffer in the wake of the financial crisis, developing countries have come out relatively unscathed. The World Bank projects average global GDP growth of just 2.5% in 2013. Indrawati has served as managing director and the most senior woman at the World Bank since May 2010; as managing director, she oversees the World Bank’s operations in Asia and Africa, Europe, Latin America and the Middle East. After a series of deadly accidents in Bangladesh, the World Bank and the International Labor Organization have put pressure on the country to overhaul its labor laws.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-5692" src="/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/FWA-2013-Oct-012-019-MOU-Top-100-005-221x300.jpg" alt="" width="221" height="300" /></p>
<h4>Liyuan Peng</h4>
<p>China&#8217;s most public first lady since Madame Mao, Peng is the stylish second wife of new leader Xi Jinping. She toured with her husband during Xi&#8217;s first presidential trip abroad to Russia and Africa in March and was credited with putting a human face on the Communist regime; not for nothing, Peng is a member of the Public Diplomacy Association, an organized tasked to make China more appealing abroad. The former superstar folk singer is often joked about for being more famous than her husband: &#8220;Who is Xi Jinping? He is Peng Liyuan&#8217;s husband.&#8221; Fashion editors watch her for her (mostly) made-in-China style, but she&#8217;s also a U.N. ambassador for health and a Goodwill Ambassador for the World Health Organization focusing on TB and HIV/AIDS.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h4>Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala</h4>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-5689" src="/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/FWA-2013-Oct-012-019-MOU-Top-100-001-221x300.jpg" alt="" width="221" height="300" /></p>
<p>One year in office after a failed bid to for the World Bank presidency, Nigeria&#8217;s Harvard-educated finance minister produced a 6.5% increase in GDP from 2011 to 2012. Nigeria is the third largest economy in Africa with nearly $50 billion in foreign reserves.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h4>Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf</h4>
<p>Johnson-Sirleaf is an African icon. She is the  continent&#8217;s first female head of state, a 2011 Nobel Prize winner for her work  n the global women&#8217;s empowerment circuit.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-5690" src="/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/FWA-2013-Oct-012-019-MOU-Top-100-002-208x300.jpg" alt="" width="208" height="300" /></p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>


The world’s 100 most powerful women

<p>&nbsp;</p>
<h3>SANUSI LAMIDO SANUSI</h3>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-221" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/FA-2011-Dec-Jan-OFC-229x300.jpg" alt="" width="229" height="300" /></p>
<h3>Governor of the Central Bank  of Nigeria</h3>
<p>In a country plagued by corruption, fraud and money laundering, no-one had expected such a radical, and by his own admission, “sudden” and “very risky” move. A mere two months into the job of Nigeria’s Central Bank Governor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi fired, in one fell swoop, five CEOs of the country’s leading banks for mismanagement and corruption.</p>
<p>In a place where those who end the careers of others get theirs abruptly ended too, Sanusi, as some of his critics retorted at the time, had gone too far; he had overplayed his hand. His answer: “Well they should tell me exactly where I should have stopped. People have stolen money and run banks to the ground. Was I supposed to leave them?”</p>
<p>Considering the fact that he knew some of the executives personally, and the initial five institutions that were affected by his action accounted for a big chunk of the country’s bank deposits—his move was to be a litmus test for the resilience of Nigeria’s financial services industry, to say nothing of his own character and principles. But when further investigations revealed that at least a third of the country’s banks were being toyed with, he was given more reason to put public interest before his and “stand for those who couldn’t stand for themselves”—even if that meant “taking difficult decisions that were painful” to him personally.</p>
<p>Sanusi would later tell pan-African television network, CNBC Africa, that although the three weeks he spent arduously contemplating the axing of the bank executives was “the most difficult part of my life”, he was “pleasantly surprised” at the amount of support he subsequently got from the people of Nigeria, across the board and including the country’s politicians, many of whom are known to be weak-willed and dependent on business people to bankroll their lives.</p>
<p>But if politicians and Bretton Woods thought that because they had supported Sanusi, he was in their pockets, they were so wrong. In Sanusi’s book, it soon became apparent, there are no permanent friends.</p>
<p>The legislators discovered this some months ago when Sanusi told a public gathering that 25.4% of the nation’s overhead cost was spent on Parliament, something many surmised as a veiled criticism of the way the country’s budget was allocated. Furious with him for “deliberately inciting” the populace, the lawmakers summoned him to Parliament and after a lot of tongue-lashing asked him to apologize.  Sanusi stuck to his guns. He told the politicians: “If I do not believe that I am wrong, I do not apologize.”</p>
<p>A month later Sanusi butted heads, again. This time with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a suggestion that Nigeria should devalue its currency. He slated them for advice that was “simply not based on sound economic logic”.</p>
<p>When the FORBES AFRICA team informed Sanusi that he had been short listed for the Person of the Year, we asked him whether, after having stepped on so many toes in such a short space of time, there was ever a time he considered, well… er…taking it easy?</p>
<p>“No, I never did,” he said pointedly, “on the contrary—I sometimes thought I didn’t step on enough toes. I think that part of my responsibility as a Nigerian is to ask what are the things wrong in our society and that need to be changed and what can I do in my position to change it.”</p>
<p>Change has indeed come to Africa’s most populous nation—thanks, in no small measure, to Sanusi among others.</p>
<p>“His quick and firm actions likely prevented a systemic banking crisis,” the IMF notes in its latest report on Nigeria.</p>
<p>“The core function of a central bank is to provide financial system stability, exchange rate stability, and price stability. Therefore, to have been able to provide stability in the last two years when the rest of the global economy has been in turmoil has been the principal achievement,” Sanusi says.</p>
<p>“Everything we’ve done in terms of the recapitalization of the banks, mergers and acquisitions, governance reforms etc are all aimed at financial stability. We’ve been able to do that while achieving stability in the exchange rate and keeping inflation relatively under control. Obviously, we’ve had volatility in interest rates and exchange rates because you can’t have price, exchange rate and interest rate control at the same time. But I think we’ve achieved our core mandate.”</p>
<p>Business confidence has surged and Africa’s third-largest economy is expected to grow above trend, with favorable medium-term prospects. A 7% real GDP growth is relatively high, even though it is below the double-digit levels the country requires if it is to become one of the world’s top 20 economies.</p>
<p>“It’s just an arithmetic fact that at current growth rates we’ll take over from South Africa in terms of share size. But this is a country of 167 million people and growing and 7% growth at the moment does not improve the welfare of the people of Nigeria and we need a higher rate of growth than we have at the moment,” Sanusi says: “The focus should not be on GDP, but GDP per capita, human development indicators and the quality of life of the population. Inclusive growth is the challenge.</p>
<p>Double-digit growth will be a function of the right policies, he says: “We already have 7% growth without power and infrastructure. Growth that has come largely from telecoms, wholesale and retail trade and the good fortune of rainfall for agriculture. It’s a no brainer that if we begin to move, for instance, agriculture production towards global averages we can probably double growth in that sector and build manufacturing by fixing power and infrastructure, moving from 7% to 12 or 13%.”</p>
<p>Born on July 31, 1961, of a public servant father who headed the Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the 1960s, Sanusi has BSc and MSc degrees.</p>
<p>Between 1983 and 1985 he taught economics at his alma mater, Ahmadu Bello University, before joining the private sector.</p>
<p>He was the CEO of First Bank when, some day in late February 2009, he received a call from the then Nigerian President, Umaru Yar’Adua.</p>
<p>“We spent about 15 minutes chatting about family,” Sanusi recalls. But it wasn’t until May 8 of the same year that Sanusi got another call, this time the head of state informing him of his wish to make him the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria. It came as a big shock to Sanusi, who had never met his president before and thought you had to lobby to get such jobs.</p>
<p>Little did he know that two years on, he would have behind him such accolades as World Central Bank Governor of the Year 2011, Sub-Saharan Central Bank Governor of The Year 2011, African Central Bank Governor of The Year 2010 and People’s Person of The Year 2010.</p>
<p>He is most likely to arrive at the Forbes Africa Person of the Year awards ceremony in Lagos wearing a bow tie, for he refuses to wear a conventional tie. A bow tie, he says, is “cute” and speaks to his “instinctive sense of being different”. What else would you expect from a banker who never runs with the herd.</p>


“I sometimes thought I didn’t step on enough toes”

<p>After several years of steady growth in Africa, some sectors of the economy hit a wall. Lower prices for oil and other commodities led to a smaller number of African billionaires than a year ago on Forbes’ new list of Africa’s 50 Richest – 23 billionaires this year, down from 28.</p>
<p>As a group, the continent’s wealthiest 50 are worth $95.6 billion, a decline of $15 billion from a year ago.  Aliko Dangote of Nigeria retains his spot as number one richest African for the fifth year in a row, but his $16.7 billion net worth is nearly $5 billion lower than a year ago, a result of a drop in the stock price at his Dangote Cement and a weaker Nigerian currency.</p>
<p>Number two on the list is Nicky Oppenheimer, whose estimated $6.6 billion fortune stems from the stake he inherited in diamond miner and marketer De Beers. In 2012, Oppenheimer sold the De Beers stake to mining giant Anglo American for $5.1 billion in cash. He moves up the ranks from the number three spot in 2014.</p>
<p>South Africans made the best showing on the Africa’s richest list this year, occupying 16 spots, up from 11 last year. Nigerians had a smaller representation, with 10 members of the list, down from 13. Eight members hail from Morocco, 7 from Egypt, 3 from Tanzania and 3 from Kenya. There was one each from Algeria, Angola and Uganda.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<ol>
<li>
<h3>Aliko Dangote</h3>
</li>
</ol>
<h3>$16.4 billion</h3>
<h3> Nigeria</h3>
<p>Despite a weaker Nigerian currency and strife in the northern part of Nigeria, Aliko Dangote is still Africa’s richest man by far, even after a net worth decline of nearly $5 billion in the past year. In 2015 his Dangote Cement, Africa’s largest cement producer, launched new cement plants in Cameroon, Ethiopia, Zambia and Tanzania. In total, Dangote Cement produces more than 30 million metric tons annually, with a plan to double capacity by 2018. Dangote owns nearly 91% of publicly-traded Dangote Cement through a holding company; this percentage exceeds the 80% ownership ceiling set by the Nigerian Stock Exchange. A note in Dangote Cement’s 2014 annual report states that “controlling shareholder Dangote Industries Limited has continued to reduce its holding in Dangote Cement towards the NSE-required level of 80% or less” but Dangote doesn’t appear to have sold many shares this year. Other companies in the Dangote Group – which is active in 15 African countries – include publicly-traded salt, sugar and flour manufacturing companies.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<ol start="2">
<li>
<h3>Nicky Oppenheimer &amp; family</h3>
</li>
</ol>
<h3>$6.5 billion</h3>
<h3> South Africa</h3>
<p>Nicky Oppenheimer, who inherited his family’s stake in diamond giant De Beers, exited the business in 2012 and has kept a relatively low profile since then. For 85 years, the Oppenheimer family occupied a controlling spot in the world’s diamond trade; in 2012 Nicky sold his 40% stake in De Beers to mining conglomerate Anglo American for $5.1 billion in cash. Anglo American, which Nicky’s grandfather founded, controls 85% of De Beers; the government of Botswana owns the remaining 15%. Nicky Oppenheimer served on Anglo American’s board for 37 years through 2011, and retains an estimated 1.8% stake in the company. His E. Oppenheimer &amp; Son entity controls investment arms Stockdale Street Capital and Tana Africa Capital, a joint venture with Singapore government-owned investment firm Temasek. Tana Africa Capital holds minority interests in African food manufacturers Promasidor and Regina. In 2002 at the World Summit on Sustainable Development, Nicky Oppenheimer, who was then chairman of De Beers, helped launch the Diamond Route. The initiative set aside 250,000 hectares of land surrounding diamond mines, including property owned by De Beers and Oppenheimer, for tourism and conservation. But in October 2015, three years after he sold his family’s stake in De Beers, Oppenheimer announced at a Diamond Route research conference that he was uncoupling Oppenheimer land from the diamond route.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<ol start="3">
<li>
<h3>King Mohammed VI</h3>
</li>
</ol>
<h3>$5.8 billion</h3>
<h3> Morocco</h3>
<p>From his late father King Hassan, King Mohammed VI of Morocco inherited a 35% stake in Societe NationaWle d’Investissement (SNI), a holding company that has stakes in several publicly traded companies, including the country’s largest bank, Attijariwafa; mining company Managem Group; sugar producer Cosumar; and dairy firm Centrale Danone. Forbes’ estimate of the king’s net worth is up significantly from a year ago due to new information about the value of SNI’s assets.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<ol start="4">
<li>
<h3>Christoffel Wiese</h3>
</li>
</ol>
<h3>$5.7 billion</h3>
<h3> South Africa</h3>
<p>In a year when many moguls in Africa saw their fortunes shrink, South African retailing tycoon Christoffel Wiese is flourishing. His net worth has risen by more than $1 billion in the past 12 months. In February 2015, two companies in which he held stakes – Pepkor and Steinhoff – struck an agreement whereby Steinhoff, a furniture and home goods retailer, agreed to purchase Pepkor, a clothing and footwear seller, for $5.7 billion in cash and stock. Wiese’s resulting 17% stake in Steinhoff is now his largest asset, worth $3.7 billion as of mid-November 2015. His other investments include 15% of publicly-traded Shoprite Holdings, which controls supermarkets, furniture stores and fast food outlets in 15 countries across Africa and the Indian Ocean Islands; and stakes in private equity firm Brait, industrial products company Invicta Holdings and mining-sector investor Pallinghurst. Wiese has had his eye on the U.K. In Spring 2015, he acquired British fashion retailer New Look for $1.23 billion and gym chain Virgin Active for $1 billion.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<ol start="5">
<li>
<h3>Johann Rupert &amp; family</h3>
</li>
</ol>
<h3>$5.4 billion</h3>
<h3> South Africa</h3>
<p>Johann Rupert chairs listed Swiss luxury goods firm Compagnie Financiere Richemont, best known for the brands Cartier and Montblanc. He created the company in 1988 after spinning off international assets owned by Rembrandt Group Limited (now Remgro Limited), a South African company his father Anton founded in the 1940s as a tobacco manufacturer. Rupert owns a 7% stake in Remgro, which he chairs, as well as 25% of Reinet, an investment holding company based in Luxembourg that has a stake in British American Tobacco. He also owns part of the Saracens English rugby team and Anthonij Rupert Wines, named after his deceased brother. In recent years, Rupert has been a vocal opponent of plans to allow fracking in the Karoo, a region of South Africa where he owns land. At a luxury conference in Monaco in June 2015, Rupert said income inequality – exacerbated by the rise of tech and automation – was one of the biggest concerns for the luxury industry, because it makes luxury goods customers afraid to publicly display their wealth through the fancy goods they purchase.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<ol start="6">
<li>
<h3>Nassef Sawiris</h3>
</li>
</ol>
<h3>$4.2 billion</h3>
<h3> Egypt</h3>
<p>Egypt’s richest businessman, Nassef Sawiris, is pressing ahead with investments in his country. In November 2014 he partnered with Abu Dhabi’s International Petroleum Investment Co. to develop a coal-based power plant in Egypt. His company OCI, which decamped from the Egyptian stock market during Mohamed Morsi’s Islamist regime in 2013, formally split in February 2015. Its construction arm, Orascom Construction, now trades on Egypt’s exchange and Nasdaq Dubai; while OCI, the fertilizer and chemicals business, trades on Euronext Amsterdam. Sawiris also owns nearly 5% of LafargeHolcim, making him one of the largest shareholders. The two cement giants merged in July 2015. In October, he emerged as the biggest individual shareholder in Adidas with a 6% stake worth more than $1 billion. A University of Chicago graduate, Sawiris donated $20 million to the school in March 2015 to establish a scholarship program named after his father Onsi, also a billionaire. The funds will benefit Egyptian students.</p>
<h3></h3>
<ol start="7">
<li>
<h3>Isabel dos Santos</h3>
</li>
</ol>
<h3>$3.5 billion</h3>
<h3> Angola</h3>
<p>Isabel dos Santos is the oldest daughter of Angola’s longtime president and, by virtue of her investments in Portugal and Angola, is Africa’s richest woman. Though her representatives deny that her holdings have any connection with her father, Forbes research found that her father, President Jose Eduardo dos Santos, transferred stakes in several Angolan companies to her. Her assets in Angola include 25% of Unitel, the country’s largest mobile phone network, and a stake in a bank, Banco BIC. In Portugal she owns a nearly 7% chunk of oil and gas firm Galp Energia (alongside Portuguese billionaire Americo Amorim), and nearly 19% of Banco BPI, the country’s fourth-largest bank. She is also a controlling shareholder of Portuguese cable TV and telecom firm Nos SGPS (formerly called Zon). In June 2015, media reported that she spent slightly more than $200 million to buy a stake in Portuguese equipment firm Efacec Power Solutions. In October 2015, four members of the European Parliament publicly called for an investigation into Isabel dos Santos’ investments in Portugal, questioning the legality of the purchase, saying that the method of payment – a transfer of funds by the Angolan government – “raises the possibility the Angolan State is indirectly and illegally financing private investments of his daughter Isabel dos Santos.” A spokesperson for Dos Santos did not respond to an email requesting comment on the allegations.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<ol start="8">
<li>
<h3>Issad Rebrab &amp; family</h3>
</li>
</ol>
<h3>$3.1 billion</h3>
<h3> Algeria</h3>
<p>Issad Rebrab founded Algeria’s biggest privately held conglomerate, Cevital. It owns one of the largest sugar refineries in the world, with an annual output of 1.5 million tons; it also produces vegetable oil and margarine. Rebrab has been diversifying by buying European companies in distress. In 2014, he acquired (for an undisclosed amount) Groupe Brandt, a large French-based maker of appliances which had filed for bankruptcy protection. Cevital has invested more than $200 million to build a Brandt plant in Algeria which will employ 7,500 people. Rebrab is betting that his country can compete with China for cheap labor. “We have huge potential; we can make up for lost time very quickly,” he said at a conference in Algeria in February 2015. Rebrab, whose five children work at the company, is the son of militants who fought for Algeria’s independence from France.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<ol start="9">
<li>
<h3>Naguib Sawiris</h3>
</li>
</ol>
<h3>$3 billion</h3>
<h3> Egypt</h3>
<p>Naguib Sawiris captured world headlines in September 2015, when he offered to buy an island from Greece or Italy to settle refugees fleeing the war in Syria. A picture of the lifeless body of a Syrian boy on an Turkish beach prompted the gesture. “I am serious with my intentions,” he told FORBES. However, so far he has not purchased an island. Sawiris, who built his fortune in telecom, runs Orascom Telecom Media &amp; Technology (OTMT), a publicly traded company in Cairo. It has investments in mobile phone, media and technology companies in Egypt, Lebanon and Pakistan, but earlier this year exited the cell phone business in Egypt when it sold its stake in Mobinil to Orange, a multinational telecom firm formerly known as France Telecom. In North Korea, OTMT operates Koryolink, the country’s only 3G mobile telecom firm. Sawiris, who owns liberal TV station ONTV in Egypt, added to his media holdings by recently buying a majority stake in France’s news channel Euronews.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<ol start="10">
<li>
<h3>Mike Adenuga</h3>
</li>
</ol>
<h3>$2.9 billion</h3>
<h3> Nigeria</h3>
<p>Mike Adenuga, Nigeria’s second richest man, built his fortune in telecom and oil production. His mobile phone company Globacom is now the second largest operator in Nigeria with more than 30 million subscribers and operations in Ghana and the Republic of Benin. In May 2016, Globacom made a $600 million bid for Ivorian mobile telecom operator Comium Cote d’Ivoire, which has been grappling with debt and cash flow problems; the outcome of the purchase offer is still pending. His exploration outfit, Conoil Producing, operates six oil blocks in the Niger Delta; weaker oil prices have led to a lower value for the private company. Adenuga studied in the United States in the 1980s, getting an MBA at Pace University in New York, where he worked as a taxi driver to support himself. He returned to Nigeria and made his first fortune trading lace and Coca-Cola. Along the way he made friends with Nigerian military bigwigs who awarded him lucrative state contracts, those formed the foundation of his fortune.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>


Category: Lists

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

More from Lists