The Most Powerful People in the World list is an annual snapshot of the heads of state, CEOs and financiers, philanthropists and NGO chiefs, billionaires, and entrepreneurs who truly rule the world. It represents the collective wisdom of top FORBES editors, who consider hundreds of nominees before ranking the planet’s top 72 power-brokers – one for every 100 million people on Earth — based on their scope of influence and their financial resources relative to their peers.
This year the votes for the World’s Most Powerful went to Russian President Vladimir Putin. He climbs one spot ahead of U.S. President Barack Obama, who held the title in 2012.
Nigerian Billionaire Aliko Dangote, founder of Dangote Group, has been ranked this year as No. 64, he is by far Africa's richest man, with a net worth of $16.1 billion, and also one of the most diversified, with interests in cement, sugar, flour, salt and, most recently, oil and petrochemicals. In May, he announced ambitions to enter Nigeria's largest industry, petroleum, and build Africa's largest petroleum refinery in the country. Dangote is making a name for himself on the philanthropic circuit and has given away millions to education, health and social causes in Africa.
Sudanese-British billionaire Mohammed Ibrahim is ranked made his money on Celtel, one of the first mobile phone companies in Africa that serves 23 countries across the continent and in the Middle East. He sold it in 2005 for $3.4 billion and pocketed $1.4 billion. He's now trying to change corrupt leadership in the region through the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, which gives a lifetime award of $5 million over 10 years to retired African heads of state who have left their countries materially better off and more transparent. This October, for the second consecutive year the panel did not give out a prize; it was the fourth time in its seven-year history.