Research firm New World Wealth and Henley and Partners has named Nairobi the fifth wealthiest city in Africa.
The 2023 World’s Wealthiest City Report, released on Tuesday, covered the population data of High-Net-Worth Individuals (HNWIs) in 97 cities across Africa, Australasia, CIS, East Asia, Europe, the Middle East, North America, South Asia, and Southeast Asia.
“The firm tracks the movements and spending habits of over 150,000 high-net-worth individuals in their in-house database. The data also takes into account public prime property statistics (property registers and property sales). Specifically, it considers the number of highly priced homes in each area,” the report reads in part.
The report indicates that Nairobi is home to 4,700 High-Net-Worth Individuals(HNWIs) who have at least USD 1 million (Ksh134 million).
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Kenya’s capital also hosts some 11 centi-millionaires who have more than USD 100 million (Ksh.13 billion). The city, however, did not record a dollar billionaire.
Mombasa was the second Kenyan city that managed to the list with a total of 700 HNWIs and only 2 centi-millionaires. No dollar billionaires were recorded in the coastal town.
South Africa’s Johanessburg city ranked the first in Africa, with 14,600 HNWI, 30 centi-millionaires, and two-dollar billionaires, followed by Egypt’s capital Cairo, which has 7,400 HNWIs, 27 centi-millionaires, and 5-dollar billionaires.
Cape Town in South Africa took the third position with 7,200 HNWIs, followed by Nigeria’s Lagos, which has 5,400 HNWIs.
‘’The ‘Big 5’ wealth markets in Africa — South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria, Kenya, and Morocco — together account for 56% of Africa’s high-net-worth individuals and over 90% of the continent’s billionaires,’’ noted the 2023 Africa Wealth Report.
Globally, the US cities led in the list, with New York City emerging as home to 340,000 HNWIs, 724 centi-millionaires, and 58-dollar billionaires.
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Tokyo, the Bay Area (USA), London, and Singapore rounded off the top five wealthiest cities on the globe.
Key to note is that the majority of the top 20 wealthiest cities in the world are in countries that host formal investment migration programs and actively encourage foreign direct investment in return for residence or citizenship.
According to the 2023 Africa Wealth report, the total high-net-worth individual numbers in Africa have fallen by 12% over the past decade (2012 to 2022).
Performance was constrained by poor growth in the three largest African markets, South Africa, Egypt, and Nigeria.
The report projects a 42 percent growth of Africa’s millionaire population over the next 10 years, reaching around 195,000 by 2032.
