Afrigather 
The variety of greenback millionaires in Nigeria shrank by 30 % within the final decade, a brand new report has proven, with analysts attributing the decline in non-public wealth to naira depreciation and different financial headwinds.
Africa’s greatest economic system noticed the most important decline in non-public wealth on the continent between 2012 and 2022, based on the Africa Wealth Report 2023 by Henley and Companions, a London funding migration consultancy.
The opposite international locations that recorded declines are Angola (28 %), Algeria (26 %), Egypt (25 %), South Africa (21 %) and Botswana (10 %).
“Whole high-net-worth particular person numbers in Africa have fallen by 12 % over the previous decade. Efficiency was constrained by poor development within the three largest African markets, South Africa, Egypt, and Nigeria,” the report mentioned.
It mentioned Rwanda was the top-performing market in Africa through the interval, with millionaire development of 72 %, adopted by Mauritius, the Seychelles, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“Morocco and Kenya’s high-net-worth particular person populations additionally grew solidly. Ethiopia and Ghana, whose millionaire populations had been rising quickly till 2019, have struggled over the previous few years, which have pulled again their 10-year development charges,” it added.
The report gives a complete overview of personal wealth in Africa, together with high-net-worth-individual, luxurious, and wealth administration traits, in addition to professional insights on funding, the funding migration sector, and financial mobility on the continent.
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The wealth classes are cut up into millionaires — people with a internet price above a million {dollars}; centimillionaires — people with a internet price above $100 million, and billionaires — people with a internet price above one billion {dollars}.
A breakdown of the 138,000 millionaires in Africa present that South Africa has 37,800 millionaires; Egypt, 16,100; Nigeria, 9,800; Kenya, 7,700; and Morocco, 5,800.
Mauritius has 4,900; Algeria, 2,800; Ethiopia, 2,700; Ghana, 2,600; and Tanzania 2,400.
Analysts attributed the shrinking greenback millionaire membership in Nigeria to the numerous depreciation within the worth of the naira towards the greenback.
“Ideally, when the naira depreciates, millionaires’ internet price reduces in greenback phrases. And for buyers who do their companies within the nation and earn naira in money flows, their internet price will need to have diminished in greenback phrases,” Damilola Adewale, a Lagos-based financial analyst, mentioned.
He mentioned every little thing is tied to poor coverage selections of the Central Financial institution of Nigeria as regards overseas change fee. “A few of the points we now have with FX fee are widening disparity between official and parallel market fee.”
Two financial recessions within the final seven years have weakened Nigeria’s overseas inflows, leading to a liquidity problem within the nation’s FX market. Final 12 months, the naira depreciated towards the greenback, dropping to as little as 448/$1 from 157/$1 in 2012 on the official market. It depreciated to 740/$1 from N159/$1 on the parallel market.
The FX liquidity problem can be a serious contributing issue to the nation’s inflation fee, which hit 21.34 % in December 2022, the best in 17 years, from 12 % in the identical interval of 2012, based on the Nationwide Bureau of Statistics.
“Most rich Nigerians have their enterprise within the nation, which implies their wealth is in naira,” Temitope Omosuyi, funding technique supervisor at Afrinvest Restricted, mentioned. “So, because of the depreciation of the foreign money attributable to complexities within the overseas change and the coverage round it, their wealth is worse off.”
Omosuyi added that the latest international financial challenges have additionally affected firms that aren’t globally aggressive, significantly those that aren’t within the technological house.
“Most rich individuals play within the primitive sector or much less progressive sectors, which aren’t so resilient to the worldwide shocks.”
The Henley and Companions report revealed that regardless of the drop within the variety of millionaires in South Africa, Egypt and Nigeria, the international locations nonetheless stay among the many high 5 wealth markets.
“The ‘Huge 5’ wealth markets in Africa — South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria, Kenya, and Morocco — collectively account for 56 % of Africa’s high-net-worth people and over 90 % of the continent’s billionaires,” it mentioned.
It, nonetheless, mentioned their continued dominance was removed from assured, they usually might quickly be challenged by the likes of Mauritius and Rwanda, that are quick gaining floor. “Namibia’s new residence by funding providing positions it as a future potential rival as properly.”
