In 2022, the African Wealth Report as of December 2021 published recently by UK consultancy firm Henley & Partners in conjunction with South African Wealth intelligence firm, New World Wealth, shows that the majority of Africa’s private affluence is controlled by 3 countries; Egypt, South Africa and Nigeria.
The report highlights that the top 5 wealthiest countries respectively are South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria, Morocco and Kenya. The top 3 countries each command $651 billion, $307 billion and $228 billion of private wealth. This totals to $1.18 trillion, a 56% share of Africa’s total private wealth which stands at $2.1 trillion
Morocco and Kenya follow with $251 billion and $91 billion, respectively. Notably, South Africa is home to over twice as many millionaires as any other African nation, while Egypt has the most billionaires on the continent.
Africa’s wealthiest cities are Johannesburg and Cape Town with $239 billion and $131 billion. Nairobi comes at 6th position for richest cities in Africa, behind Cairo, Lagos, Durban and Umhlanga
Currently, Africa has 21 billionaires, 305 centi-millionaires, 6,700 multi-millionaires and 136,000 millionaires. Despite this, Africa’s total wealth had fallen by 7% over the past 10 years mainly due to poor returns in the three largest African markets; South Africa, Egypt, and Nigeria.
Inside Egypt’s agricultural dominance in the African market
2031 projection by the UK investment firm Henley & Partners estimates that the total private wealth held in Africa will rise by 38%, to reach $3 trillion. This will be driven by strong growth in the technology and professional services sectors.
The firm’s analysis reveals the expectation of Mauritius, Rwanda and Uganda to be the strongest performing markets in Africa, with 60%+ growth rates. Kenya, Morocco, Mozambique and Zambia are expected to see 50%+ growth rates.
In terms of the Luxury market, South Africa tops the chart, followed by Kenya then Morocco. The luxury market consists of Luxury hotels and lodges, cars, clothing and accessories, watches, private jets and yachts.
In the Luxury cars sector, Porsche has the greatest presence in the African market with the most sales in South Africa, Kenya, Egypt, Mauritius and Morocco respectively. Other luxury vehicles dominating the African market are Bentley, Ferrari, Aston Martin, Rolls-Royce, Lamborghini and McLaren, all of which have buyers mostly in South Africa.
The study shows Africa’s highest wealth was recorded in 2012 at $2.4 trillion while 2017 had the highest number of dollar millionaires at 148,000. But the continent has been heavily criticized for minting millionaires and leaving out hundreds of millions of citizens in poverty.