Nigeria, July 10 -- A new Oxfam report has highlighted Africa's widening wealth gap in the wake of the announcement that four individuals on the list of continent's richest people are wealthier than the combined financial value of over 50 percent of Africa's population - a staggering 750 million.

The shock fact in itself is indicative not only of an increasing economic divide but of concern at the long-term impact on democracy, governance, and development on the continent.

Among them in the report are Nigeria's Aliko Dangote, Africa's richest man, as he is often called. The others are not named specifically in the report but are named by Forbes as South African luxury magnate Johann Rupert, mining heir Nicky Oppenheimer, and Egyptian co...