Kenya ranked fourth wealthiest country in Africa

Kenya has been ranked among the big five wealthy markets in Africa having millionaires and billionaires.

According to the 2024 Africa Wealth Report published by International Wealth Advisory Firm, Kenya is at position four in terms of wealth ownership.

Kenya comes after South Africa, Egypt and Nigeria ranked as position one to three respectively.

The report reveals that Kenya has many high-net-worth individuals summing up to 7,200 millionaires.

South Africa tops with   37,400 millionaires, 102 centi-millionaires, and 5 billionaires, followed by Egypt with 15,600 millionaires, 52 centi-millionaires, and 7 billionaires as Nigeria sits in third place with 8,200 high net worth individuals. As at the city level, Johannesburg holds its place as the wealthiest in Africa, with 12,300 millionaires, 25 centi-millionaires, and 2 billionaires.

Cape Town follows at second position with 7,400 millionaires, 28 centi-millionaires, and 1 billionaire while Cairo with  (7,200 millionaires)
 
The capital of Kenya, Nairobi comes fourth as one of the key centres of wealth hub with 4,400 millioners and Lagos 4,200millioners.

The report further revealed that Africa "Big 5" wealth markets(South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria and Morocco) accounts for 56 per cent of the continents' millionaires and over 90per cent of its billionaires.

It is portrayed that Africa's millioners population is set to rise by 65 per cent over the next decade.

Consequently, Mauritius, Namibia, Morocco, Zambia, Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda are all expected to experience 80 per cent  millionaire growth over the next decade.

The fluctuation in currencies and underperforming stock markets has been attributed as the major effect on wealth performance in Africa.

"The South African Rand fell 43 per cent against the US dollar from 2013-2023, and even though the JSE All Share Index rose in local currency terms, it was down 5 per cent in USD terms. 

Currencies in most other African countries also performed poorly over the past decade, with dramatic depreciations of over 75per cent  recorded in Nigeria, Egypt, Angola and Zambia," noted  Dominic Volek, Head of Private Clients at Henley and Partners.

Commenting on the report, the head of research at New World Wealth Andrew Amoils implied that African nations are also losing large numbers of high-net-worth individuals to migration that's eroding the continent's wealth.

 "Approximately 18,700 high-net-worth individuals have left Africa over the past decade. There are currently 54 African born billionaires in the world, including one of the world's richest, Elon Musk, but only 21 of them still live on the continent," noted Amoils.
 
 Even though it was noted that Africa struggles to get visas to other continents for business growth, the stakeholders noted that opportunity to explore in international business ventures would spur wealth growth in the continent.