SETH ONYANGO, BIRD NEWSROOM
AFRICA’S steady economic growth and fast-growing population is churning out an ever-expanding crop of dollar millionaires, despite a low of 2020 due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria, Kenya, and Morocco have the highest number of High Net Worth Individuals (HNWIs), each of whom has a minimum of 1 million US dollars worth of assets.
The aforementioned countries, combined, have 73,900 individuals worth one million dollars or more – South Africa (36, 500), Egypt (15, 500), Nigeria (9, 100), Kenya (8, 300) and Morocco (4, 500) according to Statista.
Mauritius followed with 4, 400, Ethiopia (3, 200), Ghana (2, 800), Cote d’Ivoire (2, 400), Tanzania (2, 300), Angola (2, 200) and Botswana (2, 000).,
Other countries minting millionaires are Nambia (1, 600), Uganda (1, 400), Mozambique (1, 000), and Zambia (700) with Rwanda closing the top 15 with 600 High Net Worth Individuals.
According to the New World Wealth (NWW) report, total private wealth held in Africa amounted to approximately 2.0 trillion US dollars, as of December 2020.
“The “Big 5” African wealth markets of South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria, Morocco and Kenya account for over 50 per cent of Africa’s total wealth,” reads the report in part.
It further stated South Africa is home to over twice as many millionaires (HNWIs) as any other African country, whilst Egypt has the most billionaires on the continent.
Mauritius is the wealthiest country in Africa in terms of average wealth per person (wealth per capita), with the World Bank officially classifying the island nation as a high-income state in July 2020.
Total wealth held in Africa, however, fell by 16 per cent over the past decade (2010 to 2020) when measured in US dollars terms. This was largely the result of currency depreciation against the dollar in key markets.
“Africa’s performance was constrained by poor performance in the three largest African markets, namely: South Africa, Egypt and Nigeria. Angola also performed poorly,” NWW said.
“The coronavirus outbreak has also had a severe impact on Africa – our estimates show that private wealth and HNWI levels in Africa have dropped by around 9 per cent over the past year (2020) alone.”
But total private wealth held in Africa is expected to grow 30 percent over the next 10 years, reaching 2.6 trillion US dollars by 2030, energised by strong growth in the billionaire and centi-millionaires segments, especially in fast-growing economies such as Ethiopia, Mauritius, Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda.