Africa is home to more than 20 dollar-denominated billionaires per the Forbes report index.
With fortunes made in oil, banking, telecoms, consumer goods, real estate, and technology, these business leaders have built companies that not only power economies but also stand among the largest employers of labour across the continent.
Yet beyond boardrooms and balance sheets, many of Africa’s wealthiest individuals have chosen to redefine their legacies through philanthropy.
From funding hospitals and universities to creating endowments that support entrepreneurship, education, health, and poverty alleviation, these billionaires are channeling their resources into transformative social impact.
While some of these philanthropists often give quietly, with little publicity, this report focuses on the most significant contributions that have been documented in the public domain.
Methodology
Nairametrics attempts to capture the biggest donors amongst African billionaires, leveraging on data available in monetary terms on their foundation websites as well as publicly verifiable coverage of such philanthropic acts as recognized by bodies such as Forbes, Bloomberg and the Times 100 within the period of the Covid-19 era, which elicited a lockdown in 2020 to present day 2025.
- Donation: $72 million +
South Africa’s first Black billionaire and founder of African Rainbow Minerals, Patrice Motsepe, has built a philanthropic legacy that ranks among the largest in Africa. Through the Motsepe Foundation, he has committed over $500million to causes spanning health, education, rural development, sports, and innovation.
Motsepe’s giving includes a $57 million (R1 billion) contribution to COVID-19 relief in 2020. He also funds global innovation through the Milken-Motsepe Prizes, with $6 million already awarded to entrepreneurs in AgriTech, Green Energy, FinTech, and AI.
In sports, he donated $10 million to the African Schools Football Championship. Earlier, he became the first African to join the Giving Pledge, committing at least half his wealth to philanthropy.
Here is a breakdown
- $500 million – cumulative charitable giving by 2019 (Motsepe Foundation reports).
- $57 million (R1 billion) -COVID-19 pandemic relief (2020).
- $10 million -African Schools Football Championships (2025).
- $6 million -Milken-Motsepe Prize funding to innovators (2021–2025)
