By Frank Kamuntu
Seven of Africa’s richest men hold a collective wealth of $52 billion, exceeding that of the 700 million people constituting the poorest half of the continent’s population.
Globally, the wealth of the world’s five richest billionaires has more than doubled since the start of this decade, while 60% of humanity has grown poorer.
This information comes from a recent Oxfam report on inequality and global corporate power.
For years, Oxfam has raised the alarm about widening and extreme inequality. In 2024, the very real danger is that these extraordinary extremes are becoming the new normal.
Corporate and monopoly power operates as an unwavering machine, consistently generating inequality.
Fati N’zi-Hassane, the Director of Oxfam in Africa, warns that if left unchecked, corporations will continue to widen the inequality gap.
“Our rigged economies are benefiting the super-rich while governments are struggling to provide crucial public services like healthcare and education to Africans across the continent. Governments must step up and ensure corporations stop squeezing workers, dodging tax, and plundering our planet in their quest for massive profits,’’ he said.
Wealth inequality In Africa’s Largest Economies
According to the report, Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, holds a “near-monopoly” on cement in Nigeria. Dangote Cement, owned by him, has experienced some of the highest profit margins globally for cement (45%), all the while maintaining a tax rate of 1% over 15 years.
In Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, Dangote owns more wealth than the bottom half of Nigerians (109 million people). Dangote and Abdulsamad Rabiu, the country’s second richest man, have increased their fortunes by 29 per cent since 2020 while the bottom 99 per cent have become poorer.
Similarly, the combined wealth of South African billionaires has surged by one-third since 2020, contrasting with a decline in wealth for the bottom 99 per cent.
The country’s four richest billionaires have as much wealth as the bottom 60 per cent of the population (36 million people).
The richest 125 Kenyans possess over twice the wealth of the bottom half, equivalent to 27 million people. Additionally, the top 1 per cent in Kenya owns 57.6 per cent of the country’s total financial wealth.
In Zimbabwe, the sole billionaire has seen his fortune grow by almost 40 per cent since 2020.
N’zi-Hassane emphasised that “African governments don’t need magic to create a more equal Africa. They just need to do their job. They must shut down the open bar of resource plundering, break up monopolies, tax the super-rich and use these resources to invest in inequality-busting policies.’’
The acting Country Director of Oxfam in Nigeria, Tijani Hamza Ahmed proposed that imposing a tax of up to 5 per cent on Africa’s super-rich could generate an annual sum of $11.9 billion, which is almost sufficient to cover the 2023 humanitarian requirements for Eastern and Southern Africa.
Advocating for transparency in the process of granting tax incentives, the Oxfam director urged the government to establish a dashboard for public access to data on tax incentives.
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