{"id":45957,"date":"2026-09-19T17:52:41","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T15:52:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=lifestyle-ent&#038;p=45957"},"modified":"2026-09-19T17:52:41","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T15:52:41","slug":"african-billionaires-open-56-billion-wealth-gap-over-middle-eastern-peers","status":"publish","type":"lifestyle-ent","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/lifestyle-ent\/african-billionaires-open-56-billion-wealth-gap-over-middle-eastern-peers\/","title":{"rendered":"African billionaires open $56 billion wealth gap over Middle Eastern peers \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The combined wealth of Africa\u2019s 24 billionaires reached an estimated $168.2 billion in September 2026, widening the wealth gap over their 26 Middle Eastern Arab counterparts to nearly $56.4 billion.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>According to a comparative wealth calculation published by <em>Business Insider Africa,<\/em> the fortune gap between Africa\u2019s top billionaires and the $111.8 billion held by Arab billionaires across Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Lebanon, and Qatar has nearly doubled over the past six months.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The surge in African billionaire wealth has been driven predominantly by Nigerian industrialist Aliko Dangote, whose net worth rose to $51.3 billion following updated valuations of the Dangote Refinery, making him individually wealthier than the Middle East&#8217;s two richest Arab billionaires, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal ($24.8 billion) and Hussain Sajwani ($15.3 billion), combined.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>While African industrial fortunes expanded by roughly $32.4 billion overall since March 2026 through gains in energy, cement, commodities, and manufacturing, Middle Eastern wealth growth remained subdued at $6.5 billion due to property market fluctuations and regional geopolitical pressures.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13989,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"featured-post":[417,418,415,416],"class_list":["post-45957","lifestyle-ent","type-lifestyle-ent","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","featured-post-africanbillionaires","featured-post-arab","featured-post-dangote-refinery","featured-post-wealth","entry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/lifestyle-ent\/45957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/lifestyle-ent"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/lifestyle-ent"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"featured-post","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/featured-post?post=45957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}