Africa's Richest Man Aliko Dangote And Four Others Nominated For Forbes Award

The Chairman of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, and former Managing Director, United Bank for Africa Plc, Mr. Tony Elumelu, have been nominated along with three other individuals, for the Forbes Africa Person of the Year 2012.

A statement from Forbes Africa indicates that, Dangote, Elumelu, and the others were nominated by its readers based on their impact on African business last year.

The other nominees are Joyce Banda, President of Malawi, Stephen Saad, Co-founder Aspen Pharmacare, Dr. James Mwangi, and Chief Executive Officer/Managing Director, Equity Bank Limited, Kenya.

According to the magazine, the winner of the award would be the individual who has had the most influence on events of the year gone by, adding that voting has commenced on the magazine’s website.

Africa’s richest man, Alhaji Aliko Dangote was last year’s runner-up when the award went to Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria.

Dr James Mwangi won the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2012 as well as Africa’s Innovation Leader of the Year Award in 2012.

Banda is Malawi’s first female leader and her administration has embraced investor friendly economic policies; she cut her salary by 30 per cent; sold the presidential jet and a fleet of luxury cars in austerity drive.

Tony Elumelu through the Tony Elumelu Foundation, is the leading advocate of Africapitalism, an economic philosophy that embodies the private sector’s commitment to Africa’s economic transformation through long-term investments.

Stephen Saad is the biggest shareholder of the largest publicly traded drug manufacturer, Aspen. The company has a market capitalisation of $6 billion. Saad became a multimillionaire at 29. Now aged 47, he employs more than 6,000 people.

Voting will end on Thursday, 1 November 2012, and the winner will revealed at an event in Nigeria.