30 Indian billionaires who made a fortune in Africa

Meet 30 Indian and Indian-origin entrepreneurs who have built large multi-million and billion-dollar businesses – and serious personal fortunes – across Africa.

With more than a century of migration into East, West, Southern and Indian Ocean Africa, Indian communities have gone from small dukas and trading posts to industrial plants, real estate empires, telecoms, fast-moving consumer goods and mining. Many arrived with modest resources and had to navigate unfamiliar markets, politics and regulation, but turned persistence and tight family networks into big balance sheets.

Today, their companies employ hundreds of thousands of people and shape key sectors from steel and sugar to telecoms, retail, tourism and banking. The list below brings together pioneers from the original narrative, plus additional tycoons whose African footprints are now impossible to ignore.

Here is a non-exhaustive list of 30 such entrepreneurs – past and present – who built substantial business fortunes in Africa.

Sunil Vaswani

Nationality: Nigerian

Company: Stallion Group

Sunil Vaswani chairs Stallion Group, a Dubai-based conglomerate that still earns much of its revenue in West Africa, especially Nigeria. The group spans vehicle assembly, agribusiness, packaging, fisheries, steel and logistics, and grew from a trading company started by his father into a multi-billion-dollar outfit under Sunil’s push into manufacturing and regional diversification.

Vimal Shah

Nationality: Kenyan

Company: Bidco Africa

Bhimji’s son, Vimal Shah, co-founded Bidco Africa and helped turn it into a regional FMCG powerhouse. As CEO and later chairman, he drove expansion into new categories and markets, building extensive production and distribution capacity across East and Central Africa and establishing himself as one of Kenya’s wealthiest and most influential industrialists.

Narendra Raval

Nationality: Kenyan

Company: Devki Group

Nicknamed “Guru,” Narendra Raval built Devki Group into East Africa’s dominant steel and cement producer. From a background as a temple assistant in India, he moved to Kenya as a teenager and gradually assembled an industrial group that manufactures cement, roofing products and other steel-related goods, and has invested heavily in new plants on the Kenyan coast.

Sudhir Ruparelia

Nationality: Ugandan

Company: Ruparelia Group

Ugandan tycoon Sudhir Ruparelia turned small cross-border trading activities into Ruparelia Group, the country’s largest private conglomerate. Its portfolio stretches across hotels and resorts, commercial and residential real estate, schools and universities, insurance, and agriculture, making him one of Uganda’s most prominent business figures.

Manu Chandaria

Nationality: Kenyan

Company: Comcraft Group

Manu Chandaria expanded his family’s metalworking concern into Comcraft, a large industrial group producing steel, aluminum and plastics from factories spread across numerous African countries. Headquartered in Nairobi, Comcraft employs tens of thousands of people and has become synonymous with East Africa’s old-guard industrial elite.

Chandu Shah

Nationality: Kenyan

Company: AquaSanTec

Chandu Shah founded AquaSanTec in 1989 and grew it into a leading manufacturer and distributor of water-storage and sanitation products. Through brands like Kentainers, the business supplies tanks and related solutions to customers in Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda and Zambia, turning a niche infrastructure need into a sizable fortune.

Dhiren Chandaria

Nationality: Kenyan

Company: Ariel Foods / Orbit Chemicals

After years in North America, Dhiren Chandaria returned to Kenya to acquire Orbit Chemicals, which he built into a major contract manufacturer for global and local consumer-goods companies. He also owns Ariel Foods, which produces ready-to-use therapeutic foods in Kenya and Nigeria for agencies such as the World Food Programme, blending profit with humanitarian demand.

Mayur Madhvani

Nationality: Ugandan

Company: Madhvani Group

A son of the Madhvani family patriarch, Mayur played a central role in rebuilding and enlarging the Madhvani Group after the turbulent Idi Amin years. The group dominates Uganda’s sugar industry through Kakira and Kinyara Sugar Works, and also owns power plants, hotels, safari lodges and security businesses, generating hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.

Vinay and Ratan Mahtani

Nationality: Nigerian

Company: Churchgate Group

Brothers Vinay and Ratan Mahtani inherited their father Ishwardas Mahtani’s textile and trading business and gradually pivoted Churchgate into real estate and property development. The group controls major commercial and residential complexes, including Abuja’s World Trade Center, and still maintains interests in manufacturing and trading.

Ramesh Hathiramani

Nationality: Nigerian

Company: Dana Group

Starting in general merchandise trading in the 1970s, Ramesh Hathiramani built Dana Group into a diversified Nigerian conglomerate spanning pharmaceuticals, aviation, industrial chemicals and auto distribution. The group also operates a steel rolling mill and owns Dana Air, a well-known domestic carrier.

Amirali “Mukwano” Karmali

Nationality: Ugandan

Company: Mukwano Group

The late Amirali Karmali, widely known as “Mukwano,” built Mukwano Group into a major industrial manufacturer in Uganda. The group makes cooking oils, soaps, detergents, plastics and other everyday products, and Karmali accumulated extensive agricultural land holdings. Leadership has since passed to his son, Alykhan, but the family remains highly influential.

Vivian Reddy

Nationality: South African

Company: Edison Group

South African Indian businessman Vivian Reddy founded Edison Group, whose flagship Edison Power is one of the country’s largest electrical engineering contractors. Over time he added interests in casinos, hotels and property, including the high-profile Ocean development in Durban, turning a technical services firm into a broader empire.

Ramesh Valechha

Nationality: Nigerian

Company: Milan Group

Ramesh Valechha started Milan Group as a commodities trader more than four decades ago and expanded it into a multifaceted conglomerate active in Nigeria and beyond. Its businesses range from automobile distribution and logistics to hospitality and real estate; Milan also owns Lagos Continental Hotel, a landmark property in Nigeria’s commercial capital.

Benoy Berry

Nationality: Nigerian

Company: Contec Global

Benoy Berry founded Contec Global in the 1980s and developed it into a specialist in identity and security solutions. The company has long provided biometric and secure-document technologies for government projects, including passports and residence cards in Nigeria, while also extending into other African and international markets.

Raj and Alok Gupta

Nationality: Nigerian

Company: African Industries Group

The Gupta brothers control African Industries, a major Nigerian industrial group focused on steel, mining, chemicals and real estate. Their steel mills are among the country’s largest, supplying construction and infrastructure projects and helping reduce Nigeria’s dependence on imported steel products.

Ylias Akbaraly

Nationality: Malagasy

Company: Sipromad Group

Ylias Akbaraly took over Sipromad, originally a small family trading company, and turned it into one of Madagascar’s biggest privately owned groups. Sipromad now operates in agriculture, aviation, hospitality, security services, pay-TV, utilities and consumer goods, with annual revenues in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Hassanein Hiridjee

Nationality: Malagasy

Company: Axian Group

Hassanein Hiridjee leads Axian Group, an investment company with significant holdings in banking, telecoms and energy in Madagascar and the wider region. Through assets such as Telma, BNI Madagascar and fuel company Jovenna, Axian has become a central player in the Indian Ocean’s financial and telecoms landscape.

Bashir Currimjee

Nationality: Mauritian

Company: Curimjee Group

Descended from a Gujarati trader who settled in Mauritius in the 19th century, Bashir Currimjee heads Curimjee Group. The family conglomerate operates in telecoms, media and IT, real estate, tourism, commerce and financial services, energy, and consumer goods; its assets include mobile operator Emtel and leading pay-TV provider MC Vision.

Rambhai Patel

Nationality: Kenyan

Company: Ramco Group

Rambhai Patel emigrated to Nairobi in the 1940s and set up a hardware store that would grow into Ramco Group. Under the leadership of his sons, Ramco expanded into printing, packaging, stainless steel, office supplies and more, with operations across Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda and turnover in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Hargovind and Balkrishnan Gorajia

Nationality: Rwandan

Company: Akagera Business Group

The Gorajia brothers founded Akagera Business Group, which operates in Rwanda and Burundi. Its flagship subsidiary, Akagera Motors, holds exclusive distribution rights for several global vehicle brands in Rwanda, while the broader group is involved in equipment, transport and related services.

Baloobhai Patel

Nationality: Kenyan

Company: Transworld Safaris / NSE Investments

Often described as one of Kenya’s “silent billionaires,” Baloobhai Patel owns Transworld Safaris, a long-established tour operator, and has built a substantial portfolio of blue-chip shares on the Nairobi Securities Exchange. His stakes in banks, cement companies, telecoms and insurers have made him one of the country’s wealthiest individual investors.

Sajen Aswani

Nationality: Singaporean (Indian origin)

Company: Tolaram Group

Third-generation family member Sajen Aswani spent decades inside Tolaram, helping guide its evolution from textiles into consumer goods and infrastructure. As CEO and later non-executive director, he oversaw major bets on Nigeria and other African markets, from instant noodles to industrial parks like Lagos Free Zone, turning Africa into a key pillar of the family’s wealth.

Haresh Aswani

Nationality: Singaporean (Indian origin)

Company: Tolaram Africa

As Managing Director – Africa for Tolaram, Haresh Aswani has been central to the group’s African success story. Based in Nigeria for decades, he has helped build household FMCG brands, expand large manufacturing facilities and led headline deals such as Tolaram’s acquisition of a controlling stake in Guinness Nigeria, cementing the group’s role as a major African consumer-goods player.

Savitri Jindal & family

Nationality: Indian

Company: O.P. Jindal Group / Jindal Africa

After the death of her husband, industrialist O.P. Jindal, Savitri Jindal became chair of the wider Jindal group, one of India’s largest steel and power conglomerates. Through Jindal Africa – part of JSPL and the wider group – the family controls mining and energy operations in South Africa, Mozambique, Botswana and Namibia, supplying coal and other minerals to regional and global markets and extending the group’s fortune into African resources.

Ashish J. Thakkar

Nationality: Ugandan (of Indian origin)

Company: Mara Group

Ashish Thakkar, who has Indian heritage and grew up in East Africa, founded Mara Group as a small IT trading business in Kampala at 15 with a modest loan. He has since built it into a pan-African investment group active in tech, real estate, infrastructure and financial services, with operations or investments in dozens of African countries.

M. A. Yusuff Ali

Nationality: Indian

Company: LuLu Group International

Yusuff Ali chairs LuLu Group International, a retail giant best known for its hypermarkets and malls in the Gulf and India. The group has also pushed into Africa, especially Egypt and Kenya, opening hypermarkets and committing large investments into North Africa’s retail sector, thereby tying a slice of his multibillion-dollar fortune directly to African consumers.

Rakesh Wahi

Nationality: Indian

Company: ABN Group / CNBC Africa / Forbes Africa

Former Indian army officer Rakesh Wahi co-founded Johannesburg-based ABN Group, which owns CNBC Africa and Forbes Africa, along with related media and education ventures. Through these platforms and his Transnational Academic Group universities, he has invested heavily in African media and higher education while building a substantial business presence across the continent.