Ethiopia’s Mohammed Al Amoudi lost his title as the World’s richest black person to Dangote
Business, East Africa, Economy, Ethiopia, NewsThursday, March 10th, 2011
Ethiopia's richest man, Billionaire Mohammed Al Amoudi
Ethiopia’s richest man, Billionaire Mohammed Al Amoudi has been ranked 63rd richest person in the world with a net worth of $12.3 Billion, an increase from the previous year. But Al Amoudi has lost his title as the World’s richest black person for the first time in almost a decade. That title now goes to Nigeria’s industrial tycoon Aliko Dangote whose net worth has surged a staggering 557% in the past year thanks to the listing of Dangote Cement in Lagos Stock Exchange.
Ethiopia’s Mohammed Al Amoudi has been the richest black person for nearly a decade and has been featured in Forbes’ Billionaires list since 2002.
Son of Saudi father and Ethiopian mother, Al Amoudi started investing in Sweden in the 1970s. His construction company MIDROC scored contract to build Saudi Arabia’s nationwide underground oil storage complex in 1988; estimated $30 billion project solidified his fortune. Al Amoudi is close to the Saudi royal family, which sees him as a can-do guy and encourages his growing business empire in Ethiopia, where he is growing rice, corn and other staples on thousands of acres–for export to Saudi Arabia. Also owns a gold mine in Ethiopia, oil refineries in Morocco and Sweden, oil fields off west Africa. His Addis Ababa Sheraton is said to be among the finest hotels in Africa. Brand new: has pledged $250 million to finance factory to build Saudi Arabia’s first car, to be called Gazal
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Residents of Addis Ababa say Mohammed Hussein Al-Amoudi can often be seen cruising Ethiopia’s capital in a Hummer, the large vehicle favored by the likes of rap stars and California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Amoudi is one of the wealthiest businessmen with origins in East Africa and was ranked this year by Forbes as the 43rd richest person in the world, with a net worth estimated at $9bn.
An avid football fan and music lover, he was born to an Ethiopian mother and an Arab father, and made his money mainly in Saudi Arabia and Scandinavia, later securing Saudi citizenship.
He made his first fortune in Saudi property and construction, but then diversified, moving chiefly into oil, but also mining and coffee, leather goods and tourism.
Amoudi’s business empire centers on the Midroc Global Group, a conglomerate that employs 24,000 people on four continents and has an annual turnover of more than $15bn, according to the 2008 annual report of Midroc Europe, one of its subsidiaries.
After becoming wealthy outside Ethiopia, Amoudi, according to his associates, has now gone into business in his home country – not to make money, but to promote the economic and social development.
It is also the place where his desire to keep a low profile disappears – and not only because of the Hummer sightings.
One report posted on the Midroc Ethiopia web site discusses Amoudi’s philanthropic acts, including his backing of the national football team. As well as having leased vast tracts of land for commercial farming, he also owns the Sheraton hotel, and the Legadembi gold mine, which is producing roughly 3.5 tonnes of fine gold a year, according to Midroc.
Amoudi is close to the ruling regime and part-funded Ethiopia’s millennium celebrations in September 2007 – the country follows a Julian calendar seven years behind the rest of the world. For many middle-class Ethiopians, the highlight of the night was a gig played in a giant Amoudi-funded concert hall by another set of sometime Hummer drivers: US hip-hop group the Black Eyed Peas.
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