On March 28, 2023 the Henley & Partners company provided the annual report on prosperity of Africa.
According to the Africa Wealth Report 2023, published by Henley & Partners in partnership with New World Wealth, the total amount of private wealth currently owned by individuals on the African continent is USD 2.4 trillion. This figure is expected to rise by 42% over the next 10 years.
South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria, Kenya and Morocco are the “big five” in terms of concentration of private capital, together they account for 56% of all wealthy people (HNWI) of the continent and more than 90% of its billionaires. There are currently 138,000 HNWIs in Africa with a personal net worth of USD 1 million or more, as well as 328 cent-millionaires with a net worth of USD 100 million or more, and 23 dollar billionaires.
Despite a challenging past decade, South Africa still has at least twice as many wealthy people as any other African country and 30% of the continent’s cent-millionaires. Egypt leads in the number of billionaires, while Mauritius boasts the highest wealth per capita in Africa at USD 37,500, followed by South Africa at USD 10,880 and Namibia at USD 10,050.
The fastest growing markets in the world
Andrew Amolis, head of research at New World Wealth, notes: “Africa is home to some of the fastest growing markets in the world, including Rwanda, Mauritius and the Seychelles, where wealth growth has been 72%, 69% and 54% respectively over the past decade.” Mauritius is expected to show strong private capital growth of 75% over the next decade (until 2032). This would make it the fourth fastest growing country in the world for the period in terms of millionaire growth, behind Vietnam, India and New Zealand.
richest cities in africa
4 of the 10 richest cities in Africa are in South Africa: Johannesburg has the largest number of millionaires in Africa (14,600), Cairo is in second place with 7,400 ultra-wealthy residents, followed by Cape Town (7,200). Lagos (5,400) is fourth, Nairobi (4,700) is fifth. Two other South African cities, Durban (3600) and Pretoria (2400), are ranked sixth and eighth respectively.
Namibia – the new star of Africa
Namibia is predicted to become one of Africa’s fastest growing markets, with the ultra-rich projected to grow by more than 60% by 2032. By December 2022, the country’s total investment wealth was USD 26 billion, and the number of dollar millionaires was 2,100 people. Launched in March 2023, the Residential Residency (RP) offer by investment could attract even more wealthy investors from around the world.
Investment migration is an innovative financial instrument
Dominique Volek, head of private banking at Henley & Partners, notes that more and more African countries are aiming to attract wealthy people through the provision of residence permits and citizenship by investment. These direct investments have the potential to seriously transform the economy: “As wealth grows on the continent and countries realize the benefits of promoting economic progress, we expect investment migration in Africa to continue to gain momentum in the coming years. This applies not only to demand in the domestic market on the part of investors from African countries, but also on the supply side. More and more African countries are looking to launch their own investment migration programs to increase the influx of both capital and talent.”
About the Africa Wealth Report 2023
The Africa Wealth Report 2023 is published annually by Henley & Partners in association with South African think tank New World Wealth. The study provides a comprehensive analysis of private equity across the continent, including trends in high net worth consumption, the luxury market and wealth management in Africa.
For more than a decade, New World Wealth has been tracking the wealth movements and buying habits of the world’s richest people. The firm’s research covers 90 countries and 150 cities around the world. It uses a model to determine wealth levels in each country with key wealth parameters from HNWIs own database of over 150,000 contacts, stock market and real estate statistics, and household income, savings and debt statistics in each market. The New World Wealth model also displays the historical growth trends of wealth in each country, taking into account fluctuations in the exchange rate against the US dollar, as well as movements in the stock market and real estate prices.
Read the report
