Why African Philanthropists Are Difficult to Track

When it comes to giving, African billionaires, too, like to put their dollars where their mouths are. Just that we don’t know where their mouths are readily. And that makes their do-gooding pretty hard to track. Unlike their counterparts in America and Europe, more than 200 of them members of them members of the Giving Pledge. Motivated by the Gates and Warren Buffet, these world’s richest humans pledged more than half or all of their wealth to mankind.

It could have been a racial thing. All white or American or European. Except for Patrice Motsepe, a South African; Mo Ibrahim, a Sudanese; Strive Masiyiwa, a Zimbabwean; and Mo Dewji, a Tanzanian.

The world’s richest black man, Aliko Dangote, is not sold on it yet. Nor telecom tycoon Femi Otedola, Abdul Samad Rabiu, and Mike Otedola. They are mighty big givers, no doubt. But the tight-lipped about it most times.

Global donation trackers like Philanthropy Chronicle and Forbes find it difficult rating them like they do Mike Bloomberg as America’s biggest donor last year. The Knights follow. And so on.

But the African billionaires still leave some traces in their foundation for trackers following the monies.

Here are some of the foundations through which they fund their good deeds of every year.

The Dangote Foundation–$1.25bn

The Mike Otedola Foundation

Masiywa’s Higher Life Foundation

Folrunsho Alakija’s Rose of Sharon Foundation—$250m in endowment

Motsepe Foundation—over $1.5bn in endowment

Dewji Foundation—$100m in endowment

Nicky Oppenheimer Memorial Trust—$80m in endowment

The Sawris Foundation

Rabiu’s BUA Foundation–$100m in endowment