So you would also like to be on Africa’s rich list? You are going to need numbers and if you are not in Nigeria then you should think global and ensure you have numbers on your side! You will need to be tech-savvy too and the good news is there are a lot of opportunities for those who adopt technology to drive their businesses. Below we look at the latest Forbes Magazine list of South Africa’s richest list and pay close attention to the sectors that gave us our top 5 Billionaires. We benchmark the results with Nigeria and Southern Africa.

1.Nicky Oppenheimer: Diamond Mining.

Oppenheimer is on top of the list with a net worth of $7,6 billion. The 72-year-old made his money off the diamond business. He was previously the chairman of diamond mining company, De Beers.

2. Johann Rupert : Luxury Goods

At 67 years-old, Rubert has a net worth of $6,8 billion. He is the chairman of Swiss luxury goods firm Compagnie Financiere Richemont, a company known for brands such as Cartier and Montblanc.

3. Koos Bekker: Media

Chairman of Naspers, Koos Bekker makes billions of rands from businesses which include DStv, Multichoice, MNet, and online stores – OLX and Takealot. Bekker has acquired most of his wealth from his media businesses and investments. Bekker is 64 years old and has a net worth of $2,6 billion.

4. Patrice Motsepe: Mining

Motsepe is the youngest person in the top 5, at 55 years old. The billionaire’s source of his income is primarily mining – Patrice is Africa’s first billionaire. He is the founder of African Rainbow Minerals and the owner and president of soccer club Mamelodi Sundowns. Motsepe has a net worth of $1,9 billion.

5. Allan Gray: Consulting

Gray’s source of income is money management. He founded investment management firm, Allan Gray Limited in 1973. Gray has a net worth of $1,7 billion.

Key Points:

1. Mining dominates the rich list

2. You may need to know, so who provided consultancy to the mining sector in various investment work? Possibly helps t explain the presence of Allan Gray at No 5.

3. The future Is Technology driven- Future billionaires will come from the internet of doing things-closely watch the gentleman on No 3, Mr Koos Bekker. Does Amazon and Facebook ring a bell?

4. If the Zimbabwean Tycoon Mr Strive Masiyiwa was South African-he would have been the third richest man. Interestingly ahead of DSTV owner Mr Koos Bekker. The Zimbabwean with a networth of $2.8bn should be benchmarked with Mr Koos to find who performs better.

5. Mr Motsepe is the richest Black South African but does not come close to Mr Masiyiwa and so when it comes to Southern Africa, the richest person is Mr Masiyiwa.

6. You are not likely to be a billionaire if you concentrate operations in your country of birth only. SA mining operations have been across Africa, DSTV is an African household name, Strive has expanded his business empire across the continent. The richest man in Africa, Mr Dangote has numbers on his side with Nigeria having an estimated total population of 190 million. If you would like to make into the billionaires league then closely look at some of the biggest markets such as West Africa (Nigeria), East Africa (Kenya), North Africa (Ethiopia, Egypt and Tunisia).

For youngsters entering the entrepreneurship route, the future billions are not in diamond mining, the new diamonds for Africa are going to be found in technology–the internet of doing things! E-Commerce is the new diamond and you have to critically look at  the big markets explained on point 6. The population of Africa is growing and E-commerce is slowly picking up providing gaps for start ups and you too can enter the field! The fact that Strive has moved to Kwese Tv clearly shows the direction the continent is headed….revise your strategies towards the future.

Asante Sana

Your favourite business forum is busy compiling a book on investment opportunities and as a result few free articles will be published in January 2018. Do expect the situation to return to normalcy in February 2018 when we resume full operations. We are also busy recruiting additional staff to cater for increased volume of work.

One of the things we encourage our members to do is to think globally. Thinking about your local community limits your success rate because your local community is likely to be a small market! Your local community is likely to face economic challenges which can negatively affect your business. We therefore encourage you to think globally when it comes to business and one way to do so is to analyse markets across the region. When our forum launched the highly successful program, we covered Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe. Whilst the programme got a lot of support and being over subscribed in neighbouring countries, when it came to Zimbabwe the response was lukewarm! The good thing is that we launched the program in Zimbabwe last otherwise if we had launched it in Zimbabwe first, then chances are high that we would have reached a wrong business conclusion. We would have concluded that there is no demand for the programme whereas across the borders, thousands were in need of the programme.

Now our second money making idea of the year is Freezits Making Machines. In Zimbabwe they are called freezits after the pioneer brand, in Malawi and South Africa they know it as Ice lolo. The good news is that there is heavy demand for the small drinks across the region. Our studies in Malawi shows that none exist in the beautiful city of Blantyre, in Mozambique, the Cidade de Maputo does not have suppliers.

The drinks are affordable and suits adults and school kids as well. Hot temperatures in Mozambique makes the drinks ideal in places such as Tete, Beira and Maputo.

Want to try?

The source of the machines used to make the drinks is South Africa and Zimbabwe. The business potential is to manufacture drinks for wholesale or even supplying the machinery for sale. This suits someone who is willing to properly manufacture and market the products. The marketing side needs to be done well especially if you are launching it in new markets.

Great potential, if you are in Malawi, you may need to visit Zimbabwe and study how this thriving industry works before launching it in your country.