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Ranked: Who Are the Richest People in Africa?

by Pallavi Rao
This post is by Pallavi Rao from Visual Capitalist

This graphic ranks the richest people in Africa. Aliko Dangote from Nigeria leads the group.

Ranked: Who Are the Richest People in Africa?

The African continent is home to 46 billionaires, the second-lowest total of any global region.

The number of wealthy individuals in Africa is growing, however. Total private wealth is expected to rise 30% over the next decade, led by growth in the billionaire and millionaire segments.

Visualized here are Africa’s richest, using data collected by Forbes, on billionaires who reside on the continent and have their primary business there.

Breaking Down Africa’s Billionaires

The richest man in Africa is also the richest Black man in the world. Once a small sugar trader, Aliko Dangote now has a net worth of $13.5 billion. He is the 86th richest person in the world, and single-handedly makes up 25% of the total wealth of African billionaires.

His company, the Dangote Group is now an African conglomerate with interests in a range of sectors, including sugar, cement, and real estate.

RankNameNet Worth (billions, USD)IndustryCitizenship
1Aliko Dangote$13.5Manufacturing🇳🇬 Nigeria
2Johann Rupert & family$10.7Fashion & Retail🇿🇦 South Africa
3Nicky Oppenheimer & family$8.4Metals & mining🇿🇦 South Africa
4Abdulsamad Rabiu$7.6Diversified🇳🇬 Nigeria
5Nassef Sawiris$7.3Construction & Engineering🇪🇬 Egypt
6Mike Adenuga$6.3Diversified🇳🇬 Nigeria
7Issad Rebrab & family$4.6Food & Beverage🇩🇿 Algeria
8Naguib Sawiris$3.3Telecom🇪🇬 Egypt
9Patrice Motsepe$3.2Metals & mining🇿🇦 South Africa
10Mohamed Mansour$2.9Diversified🇪🇬 Egypt
11Koos Bekker$2.6Media & Entertainment🇿🇦 South (Read more...)

Animation: The Global Population Over 300 Years, by Country

by Carmen Ang
This post is by Carmen Ang from Visual Capitalist

Animation: The Global Population Over 300 Years, by Country

Since the 1800s, our global population has grown from 984 million people to almost 8 billion—an increase of more than 700%.

Which regions around the world have led this growth, and what’s expected for the rest of the century? This animated visualization by James Eagle shows 300 years of population growth, including historical figures as well as projections up to the year 2100.

Asia’s Current Dominance

For centuries, more than half of the world’s population has been concentrated in Asia. At certain points throughout history, the region has made up nearly 70% of the world’s population.

Here’s a look at 2021 figures, and how large each region’s population is relative to each other:

RankRegion% of Global Population (2021)
1Asia59.2%
2Africa17.9%
3Europe9.3%
4North America7.5%
5South America5.5%
6Oceania0.6%

China and India have been Asia’s largest population hubs, with China historically leading the front. In the 1950s China’s population was nearly double the size of India’s, but the gap has fluctuated over the years.

As China’s population growth continued, it was causing problems for the country as it struggled to scale up food production and infrastructure. By 1979, the Chinese government rolled out a one-child policy in an attempt to control the situation.

The program, which ended in 2016, had a number of unintended ramifications, but ultimately, it did succeed in slowing down the country’s population growth. And (Read more...)

Animation: The Global Population Over 300 Years, by Country

by Carmen Ang
This post is by Carmen Ang from Visual Capitalist

Animation: The Global Population Over 300 Years, by Country

Since the 1800s, our global population has grown from 984 million people to almost 8 billion—an increase of more than 700%.

Which regions around the world have led this growth, and what’s expected for the rest of the century? This animated visualization by James Eagle shows 300 years of population growth, including historical figures as well as projections up to the year 2100.

Asia’s Current Dominance

For centuries, more than half of the world’s population has been concentrated in Asia. At certain points throughout history, the region has made up nearly 70% of the world’s population.

Here’s a look at 2021 figures, and how large each region’s population is relative to each other:

RankRegion% of Global Population (2021)
1Asia59.2%
2Africa17.9%
3Europe9.3%
4North America7.5%
5South America5.5%
6Oceania0.6%

China and India have been Asia’s largest population hubs, with China historically leading the front. In the 1950s China’s population was nearly double the size of India’s, but the gap has fluctuated over the years.

As China’s population growth continued, it was causing problems for the country as it struggled to scale up food production and infrastructure. By 1979, the Chinese government rolled out a one-child policy in an attempt to control the situation.

The program, which ended in 2016, had a number of unintended ramifications, but ultimately, it did succeed in slowing down the country’s population growth. And (Read more...)

Where Will the World’s Next 1,000 Babies Be Born?

by Carmen Ang
This post is by Carmen Ang from Visual Capitalist

View a higher resolution version of this map.

Map showing where the next 1,000 babies will be born, based on birth rates and population estimates

Where Will the World’s Next 1,000 Babies Be Born?

View a higher resolution version of this map.

Every four minutes, approximately 1,000 babies are born across the globe. But in which countries are these babies the most statistically likely to come from?

Using data from the CIA World Factbook, this graphic by Pratap Vardhan (Stats of India) paints a picture of the world’s demographics, showing which countries are most likely to welcome the next 1,000 babies based on population and birth rates as of 2022 estimates.

The Next 1,000 Babies, By Country

Considering India has a population of nearly 1.4 billion, it’s fairly unsurprising that it ranks first on the list. Of every 1,000 babies born, the South Asian country accounts for roughly 172 of them.

PlaceRegionBirths Per 1,000 Global Babies
🇮🇳​ IndiaAsia171.62
🇨🇳 ChinaAsia102.84
🇳🇬 NigeriaAfrica56.50
🇵🇰 PakistanAsia47.23
🇨🇩 Congo, Democratic Republic of theAfrica31.90
🇮🇩 IndonesiaAsia31.20
🇺🇸 United StatesAmericas30.42
🇪🇹 EthiopiaAfrica25.44
🇧🇷 BrazilAmericas22.27
🇧🇩 BangladeshAsia21.52
🇵🇭 PhilippinesAsia18.75
🇪🇬 EgyptAfrica16.98
🇹🇿 TanzaniaAfrica15.61
🇺🇬 UgandaAfrica13.89
🇲🇽 MexicoAmericas12.85
🇻🇳 VietnamAsia11.96
🇸🇩 SudanAfrica11.79
🇰🇪 KenyaAfrica10.82
🇦🇴 AngolaAfrica10.68
🇦🇫 AfghanistanAsia9.98
🇷🇺 RussiaEurope9.85
🇮🇷 IranAsia9.73
🇲🇿 MozambiqueAfrica8.72
🇹🇷 TurkeyAsia8.71
🇳🇪 NigerAfrica8.46
🇿🇦 South AfricaAfrica7.84
🇨🇲 CameroonAfrica7.65
🇮🇶 IraqAsia7.34
🇬🇭 GhanaAfrica6.94
🇲🇲 MyanmarAsia6.90
🇯🇵 JapanAsia6.34
🇲🇱 MaliAfrica6.25
🇩🇿 AlgeriaAfrica6.01
🇨🇮 (Read more...)

Charted: The Global Decline of Fertility Rates

by Carmen Ang
This post is by Carmen Ang from Visual Capitalist

Chart showing the change in global fertility rates since 1951

Charted: The Global Decline of Fertility Rates

Over the last 50 years, fertility rates have dropped drastically around the world. In 1952, the average global family had five children—now, they have less than three.

This graphic by Pablo Alvarez uses tracked fertility rates from Our World in Data to show how rates have evolved (and largely fallen) over the past decades.

What’s The Difference Between Fertility Rates and Birth Rates?

Though both measures relate to population growth, a country’s birth rate and fertility rate are noticeably different:

  • Birth Rate: The total number of births in a year per 1,000 individuals.
  • Fertility Rate: The total number of births in a year per 1,000 women of reproductive age in a population.

As such, the fertility rate is a more specific measure, which as Britannica highlights, “allows for more efficient and beneficial planning and resource allocation.” Not including immigration, a given area needs an overall total fertility rate of 2.1 to keep a stable population.

Global Fertility Rates since 1952

For the last half-century, fertility rates have steadily decreased worldwide. Here’s a look at the average number of children per woman since 1952:

YearAverage # of children per family% change (y-o-y)
19515.0-0.5%
19525.0-1.4%
19534.9-0.7%
19544.9-0.5%
19554.9-0.3%
19564.9-0.1%
19574.90.1%
19584.90.3%
19594.90.4%
19605.00.5%
19615.00.5%
19625.00.4%
19635.00.3%
19645.00.1%
19655.0-0.2%
19665.0 (Read more...)

What are the Most Produced Cash Crops in Africa?

by Dorothy Neufeld
This post is by Dorothy Neufeld from Visual Capitalist

What are the Most Produced Cash Crops in Africa?

Agriculture makes up nearly 20% of Sub-Saharan Africa’s economy—a higher percentage than any other region worldwide.

From Nigeria to the fertile land across the East African Rift Valley, the continent is home to 60% of the world’s uncultivated arable land.

Given the massive role of agriculture across the region, this infographic from Zainab Ayodimeji shows the most produced cash crops in Africa and their share of total global production.

The Top 20 Cash Crops in Africa

Cash crops, such as coffee or rice, are crops that are produced for a salable market.

With data from the Food and Agriculture Organization Corporate Statistical Database (FAOSTAT), here are the most produced cash crops in Africa:

Cash Crop
Tonnes Produced 2019
% of World Production
Cassava192.1M63%
Sugar cane97.3M5%
Maize81.9M7%
Yams72.4M97%
Rice, paddy38.8M5%
Sorghum28.6M49%
Rice, paddy (rice milled equivalent)
25.9M5%
Sweet potatoes27.9M30%
Wheat26.9M4%
Plantains26.7M64%
Potatoes26.5M7%
Fresh vegetables22.0M7%
Oil palm fruit21.9M5%
Tomatoes21.7M12%
Bananas21.5M18%
Groundnuts, with shell16.6M34%
Sugar beet14.3M5%
Onions, dry13.9M14%
Millet13.7M48%
Oranges9.8M12%

Cassava, also referred to as yuca, is the most produced cash crop by a wide margin. With nearly 200 million tonnes of it produced annually, Africa’s production of cassava makes up a majority (63%) of the global total.

While cassavas are not (Read more...)

Klump launches to bring Buy Now Pay Later to Nigeria

by Natasha Lytton
This post is by Natasha Lytton from Seedcamp

From left, Olufunbi Falayi, Co-founder and Chief Product Officer, Klump; Celestine Omin, Co-founder and CEO, Klump

Welcome to the Seedcamp Nation Klump, marking our second investment in Africa and businesses out to democratise access to financial services in the continent. With the e-commerce market in Nigeria projected to grow to $311 billion by 2024, we are excited to lead Klumps’ $780k pre-seed round to bring Buy Now Pay Later to Nigeria in a way that enables merchants to thrive while focussing on responsible lending for consumers.

Founded in 2021 by friends Celestine Omin and Olufunbi Falayi, Klump is a Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) technology company with a mission to enhance the online checkout payment page and in-store sales with innovative and customer-friendly products, starting with their flagship product – Pay with Klump. The founding team has deep experience across the payments sector at the likes of Konga, Andela, Paystack, Amazon Payments (Consumer Payment) and H-E-B (Wallet Payment).

As the adoption of BNPL continues to grow globally, Klump’s vision is to become the preferred alternative online checkout and in-store payment processing company, offering flexible payment solutions to customers and merchants for products and services. With their proprietary credit eligibility and fraud detection engine, Klump is able to make an informed credit decision on a customer in less than 3 minutes, compared to the industry norm in Nigeria which stands at two to three days, with a goal to further reduce the decision time to less than a minute.

Klump (Read more...)

Mobility startup Plentywaka picks up $1.2M seed, acquires Ghana’s Stabus

by Tage Kene-Okafor

Lagos and Toronto-based mobility startup Plentywaka has raised a $1.2 million seed round to scale its operations on the back of leaving the Techstars Toronto accelerator program last month. 

Canadian-based VC firm The Xchange led the round, SOSV and Shock Ventures participated, while Techstars Toronto made a follow-on investment. Nigerian firms Argentil Capital Partners and ODBA & Co Ventures took part in the seed round, alongside some angel investors from Canada, other parts of Africa, and the U.S.

In March, when TechCrunch covered Plentywaka, CEO Onyeka Akumah said the two-year-old company eyed both regional and global expansion. There hasn’t been much development on the latter except that the company set up its headquarters in Canada. However, for the former, it’s in the form of an acquisition. The company says it has fully acquired Ghanaian mobility startup Stabus but declined to comment on the acquisition price.

Plentywaka is primarily a bus-booking platform but, per its website, has over 900 vehicles ranging from cars to vans to buses. The company provides intrastate travel (via its Dailywaka offering) and interstate travel (via its Travelwaka offering) for its users via a mobile application. Since going live in September 2019,  Plentywaka says it has acquired over 80,000 users while completing up to half a million rides.

Stabus, on the other hand, commenced operations in Ghana a month after Plentywaka’s launch. Its co-founder and CEO, Isidore Kpotufe, shared that the startup has since moved over 100,000 people within the country’s (Read more...)

Equity Monday: Zoom buys Five9 as Robinhood sets IPO price range

by Alex Wilhelm

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines.

This is Equity Monday, our weekly kickoff that tracks the latest private market news, talks about the coming week, digs into some recent funding rounds and mulls over a larger theme or narrative from the private markets. You can follow the show on Twitter here and myself here.

It was a big damn morning, so we had to cut some stuff. Here’s what we got into:

  • Stocks and cryptos are off this morning, as inflation and COVID-19 concerns rise.
  • Zoom is buying Five9. The deal is not super expensive, nor is it cheap. But given the huge percentage of Zoom’s market cap that it represents, it’s a serious wager from the video conferencing startup.
  • Carlyle is buying LiveU for around $400 million. TechCrunch broke this news. The deal shows that private equity interest in startups that aren’t unicorns.
  • Robinhood dropped a new SEC filing this morning! That means we have a price range and valuation target to play with. More from TechCrunch on the matter shortly.
  • From India: A huge round for Lenskart, and a big Series A for GlobalBees.
  • And we covered this round from Nigeria. A smaller transaction, but one that could prove to be quite neat, we reckon.

Ok! Chat Wednesday!

Equity drops every Monday at 7:00 a.m. PST, Wednesday, and Friday at 6:00 a.m. PST, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts!

Equity Monday: Jeff’s going to space, and everyone wants a piece of Flipkart

by Alex Wilhelm

Hello and welcome back to Equity, TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines.

This is Equity Monday, our weekly kickoff that tracks the latest private market news, talks about the coming week, digs into some recent funding rounds and mulls over a larger theme or narrative from the private markets. You can follow the show on Twitter here and myself here.

It’s WWDC week, so expect a deluge of Apple news to overtake your Twitter feed here and there over the next few days. But there’s a lot more going on, so let’s dig in: