After months of going back and forth with a few topics to write about I decided to write about money. We all love money, some people are just lucky to have more than they could spend in one lifetime. I will not be talking about Bill Gates or Warren Buffet or Queen Elizabeth, we know they are rich and white. I will not talk about Kobe Bryant and Oprah Winfrey, they are in sports and entertainment respectively. I had this idea about looking up some black people, men and women, who are not singers, rappers, tv hosts, football players, basket ball players etc but are stinking rich. You know, the kind they just makes you want to change your last name so people will ask if you’re related to them in any way. I found so many of them but I will only write about 6, 3 women and 3 men and how they became insanely rich.

1. Isabel Dos Santos: Isabel is Angolan, her father is the president of Angola. Now, that might have gotten her some connections, but if you have connections and do not take advantage of them, they are just that.  She has investments in Retail, Finance, Telecommunications, Media and Energy industries. She is the most powerful woman in Angola and the first female billionaire in Africa and she boasts a cool $3 billion net worth. Now let’s try her last name with my first: Lordina Dos Santos…….yup, I could live with that.
2. Mo Ibrahim: He is a Sudanese born British businessman who founded the mobile phone company Celtel. He however sold his shares in 2005 and is now investing in various businesses in Africa and being just an all round awesome person by  engaging in philanthropy. He set up a foundation in Africa that promotes good governance called Mo Ibrahim Foundation. Africa needs good governance so thank you Mo for doing what you can. The foundation donates $5 million to head of states in Africa who are deemed worthy of  the Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership. I was disappointed to find out in 2009, 2010 and 2012 no head of state was given the award. Let’s do better Africa. Now how does Lordina Mo Ibrahim sound? Yeah, I like it too.
3. Folorunsho Alakija: I think this one is my favorite. She one day decided she did not want to be a secretary anymore so she quit her day job and went to pursue a degree in fashion in England. She started a business called Supreme Stitches, when she returned to Nigeria, which focused on fashion for women in high society. With a portion of the profits from Supreme Stitches, she acquired an oil exploration license and founded Famfa oil which earned her family 60% in a highly profitable oil block OML 127. She is worth $1.9 billion. Lordina Alakija coming through!
4. Donahue Peebles: He is a real estate entrepreneur, author and political activist. Peebles is the Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Peebles Corporation, the largest African American-owned real estate development and ownership company in the US, with a multi-billion dollar development portfolio of luxury hotels, high-rise residential and commercial properties in New York, DC, Pennsylvania etc. He is a lifelong Democrat but has demonstrated his independence by challenging Democratic leaders on key issues such as taxes and access to equal economic opportunities for minorities and women.He has received numerous awards over the last 25 years for his entrepreneurial leadership, community service efforts and development abilities. He is worth a measly $350 million. jk jk. The last name is not bad either!
5. Janice Bryant Howroyd: I would like to start with the fact that I want her whole name! Very classy! Her name isn’t the only enviable thing about her, she is an entrepreneur. She is the founder and CEO of the largest minority woman-owned employment agency in the US called ACT-1 Group. She started ACT-1 in Beverly Hills with her first client being Billboard Magazine, now her company boasts offices in 75 cities in the US with clients from Ford Motor Company to Sempra Energy. She can sleep peacefully every night knowing she has $250million in the bank.
6. Aliko Dangote: This guy here is the richest man in Africa! He is worth an impressive $17.7 billion. He built his fortune through Cement, Flour and sugar. He owns Dangote Group with companies in several countries in Africa. He is looking to invest $9billion in an oil project that will help in reducing Nigeria’s dependence on importing oil. Wait, doesn’t Nigeria have too much oil to depend on any from other places? Oh well. All I know is, this guy is impressively rich and I would not mind adopting his last name!