Lagos, the economic center of Nigeria, was ranked as the fourth wealthiest city in Africa with a total private wealth of $97 billion. This information can be found in the Africa Wealth Report 2022, which Henley & Partners and New World Wealth jointly published.
Lagos was fourth after Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Cairo, who took the top three spots, respectively. Notably, South Africa is home to two of the continent’s wealthiest cities, as well as four of the top ten cities (Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Pretoria). With international seaports and airports, Lagos is the most populous city in Africa and a significant economic force in Nigeria.
Lagos, however, trails cities like Johannesburg and Cape Town in South Africa, as well as Egypt’s Cairo, in terms of wealth controlled.
Similarly, Nigeria, which has the largest economy in Africa, comes in third with $228 billion in total private wealth and 10,000 millionaires, behind South Africa and Egypt. On a per capita basis, Mauritius came out on top with $34,500, while Nigeria came in at number eleven with $1,100.
As of December 2021, private wealth in Africa totaled $2.1 trillion, and there were an estimated 136,000 millionaires there with net worths of $1 million or more.
When compared to the $2 trillion recorded the year before, total private wealth in Africa increased by 5%. Aside from 2020, which was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, 2021 had the lowest population since 2015.
Approximately, there are 6,700 multi-millionaires living on the continent, each with net assets of $10 million or more in 2021.
Also, the report noted that there were 305 individuals on the continent with net assets of $100 million or more, while the number of billionaires stood at 21.
South Africa is home to over twice as many millionaires as any other African country, while Egypt has the most billionaires on the continent.
Africa’s two wealthiest cities are in South Africa. Johannesburg is the wealthiest, with a total private wealth of US$239 billion, while Cape Town in second place has a total private wealth of US$131 billion.
Notably, South Africa is home to the largest luxury market in Africa by revenue, followed by Kenya and then Morocco. Major components of this include luxury hotels and lodges, cars, clothing and accessories, watches, private jets and yachts.
Nairametrics reported in July 2022 that Nigerians got richer in 2021 based on income per capita, which rose to $5,250 from $5,000 recorded in the previous year, based on data from the World Bank. The increase was attributed to increased economic activities following the lockdown measures in the previous year to curb the spread of the covid-19 disease.
In 2021, Nigeria ranked as the largest economy in Africa with a total GDP of $440.78 billion, followed by South Africa and Egypt with GDP estimates of $419.9 billion and $404.1 billion respectively. Despite being the largest African economy, due to the huge population size of over 200 million, it ranked 17th in terms of per capita.
According to the report, it relied on wealth as a measure of financial health ahead of GDP because in many developing countries, a large portion of the GDP flows to the government, hence having little impact on private wealth creation.
