By Adedapo Adesanya
Nigeria accounts for 11 per cent of Africa’s $2.1 trillion total private wealth, according to this year’s Africa Wealth Report published by UK investment consultancy firm, Henley & Partners, in partnership with South African wealth intelligence firm, New World Wealth.
The report stated that Nigeria, which has $228 billion in private wealth, is third behind Egypt (second place) with $307 billion and South Africa, top of the echelon with $651 billion.
Others in the top 10 include Morocco, Kenya, Ghana, Tanzania, Angola, Ethiopia and Mauritius.
The report made it known that Africa’s $2.1 trillion total wealth is different from the gross domestic product (GDP), which calculates the monetary measure of the market value of all the goods and services produced in a specific period in a country.
While the number of millionaires on the continent over the past decade has not increased exponentially, the number of centi-millionaires ($100 million+) and billionaires has shot up.
Nigeria has 28 centi-millionaires and four billionaires with 510 multimillionaires, while 10,000 Nigerians have a worth of over $1 million.
Also, the appetite for investment migration in markets beyond Southern Africa has been growing steadily over the past few years. For example, Nigeria was the second-largest market (after South Africa) in enquiries received by Henley & Partners in 2021, with a growth of 15 per cent.
The report noted that the continent needs to deal with the legacy industries, whose ownership structures perpetuate inequality. It added that Africa needs to expose its citizens to financial education as most have asymmetric knowledge of finance, which constrains the growth of retail participation in financial markets.
Showing how much the top wealthiest countries affect the continent’s total wealth, in the past decade, Nigeria has had a negative private wealth growth rate of -27 per cent, instrumental in the 7 per cent decline in Africa’s wealth growth since 2011.
From a global perspective, South Africa, Nigeria and Egypt were among the top 15 nationalities regarding the enquiries Henley & Partners received last year. South Africa was in 5th place globally, with a growth of 38 per cent in 2021, Nigeria in 7th place with an increase of 15 per cent and Egypt in 14th place with a change of 25 per cent.
As reflected in the report, the Big 5 wealth markets in Africa are South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria, Morocco and Kenya. These five countries account for over 50% of Africa’s total wealth.
Giving a spotlight on Mauritius, Business Post understands that it is the wealthiest country in Africa.
“Following several decades of strong growth, Mauritius now ranks as the wealthiest country in Africa by a significant margin (on a wealth per capita basis). This amounted to $34,500 as of December 2021, which is well above second-placed South Africa ($10,970).”
New World Wealth has predicted a healthy wealth growth of 38 per cent for Africa in the next decade, but West Africa may not join the fray.
Eastern African countries are projected to anchor this rise, with “over 60 per cent growth expected in Uganda and Rwanda by 2031, and over 50 per cent in Kenya and Zambia.”
