Dangote drops, 19 years old joins world's richest billionaires

Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, has dropped in the yearly ranking of the world’s richest men as 19-year-old Norwegian, Alexandra Andresen joins the list of world’s billionaires. According to the latest ranking released by Forbes, world’s richest man, Bill Gates, still tops the list of world’s richest men for the third consecutive year as Africa’s only man initially on the top 50 list dropped to 51st after being 37th on the list.

The Nigerian business mogul and philanthropist amassed a wealth of $15.4 billion during the period under review as against the $25 billion he had last year to stand as the richest on the continent. The surprise addition to this year’s list of world’s billionaires is the 19-year-old professional dressage rider from Norway. According to Forbes, Miss Andresen is a scion of a family which made its fortune through tobacco.

In 1849 her great, great, great grandfather founded what was to become Norway’s leading cigarette producer but in 2005, the family sold the company for ethical reasons, netting $500 million. Andresen, is ranked 1,476 among the 1,810 people on the list while her sister, Katharina, 20, is the second youngest on the list.