Business
The most powerful people in African business 2012
They are the African business leaders, empire builders, moguls and high-flying chief executives of multinational corporations who possess continental clout and wield the most widespread influence in Africa’s business and economic circles.
These are the corporate titans and leaders who set the African economic agenda. Their voices are much listened to within Africa’s business and political circles, and through their resolutions and actions, they shape the economic future of the continent.
Nonkululeko Nyembezi-Heita: CEO of ArcelorMittal SA
51 year-old Nonkululeko Nyembezi-Heita heads the South African operations of ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steel producer.
ArcelorMittal South Africa is the continent’s biggest steel company. Annual production capacity: 7.8 million tons.
Nyembezi-Heita started off as an engineer at IBM’s Research Triangle Park in Raleigh, North Carolina, before proceeding to work for the company in South Africa.
Aliko Dangote: President, Dangote Group
Africa’s richest man is also one of its most influential business leaders.
The Nigerian-born commodities tycoon is founder and president of the Dangote group – West Africa’s largest industrial conglomerate. The Dangote group has manufacturing interests in sugar, flour and cement across West, East and South Africa.
His listed Dangote Cement accounts for more than a quarter of the total market capitalization of the Nigerian Stock Exchange. He is looking to list the company on the London Stock Exchange next year.
Patrice Motsepe: Executive Chairman, African Rainbow Minerals
Motsepe, 50, trained as a lawyer at the University of Witwatersrand then went on to become the first black partner at storied Johannesburg-based commercial law firm, Bowman Gilfillan.
He later founded a small contracting business doing mine scut work before buying low-producing gold shaft mines in 1994, and turned them profitable using lean management style. Today, he is the Executive Chairman of the US$5 billion (Market Capitalization) African Rainbow Minerals.
Tony Elumelu: Executive Chairman, Heirs Holdings & The Tony Elumelu Foundation
In 1997, Tony Elumelu led a small group of investors to take over a distressed medium-sized commercial bank in Lagos. He transformed the bank into what we know today as the UBA Group– a US$2 billion (market capitalization) Pan-African financial services behemoth spanning 20 African countries with over US$12 billion in assets and over 10,000 employees.
In 2010, he stepped down as Chief Executive of the bank and went on to found Heirs Holdings- an, African-focused holding company which invests in African companies across important sectors of the economy.
He also founded the Tony Elumelu Foundation, an influential non-profit which grooms and mentors business students from across the continent.
Cyril Ramaphosa: Executive Chairman, Shanduka Group
Ramaphosa, 59, is one of South Africa’s most powerful figures in business and politics.
His first taste of power was in the 1980s as a trade union leader in South Africa when he founded the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) to improve the rights of black African workers.
In the early 90s, he was elected as secretary general of the country’s leading political party, the African National Congress (ANC).
He quit politics and embarked on a career in business.
Today, his privately-held and highly influential investment holding company, Shanduka Group owns substantial stakes in South African mining giant, Assore, Standard Bank, CocaCola Shanduka – (a joint venture with CocaCola), insurance, telecom and extensive real estate holdings.