Kenya, China tie on new millionaires list

Kenya is grouped among countries that are primed to mint new millionaires at the highest rate in the next five years.

The country is now ranked sixth globally and third in Africa after Nigeria and Egypt.

Global research firm Wealth-X, which tracks affluence trends across the world, estimates that Kenya’s millionaires will increase at a rate of 9.8 percent per annum for the next five years.

The projected millionaire growth pace is the same as that of the world’s second-largest economy, China, which is tied with Kenya at number six globally.

Wealth-X puts the country in a special league of top 10 economies in the world where new high net worth (HNW) individuals will be minted faster than the overall economic expansion trends.

The report singles out Kenya and Poland as the only countries that are not in the elite leagues of economic groupings such as BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China), CIVETS (Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey and South Africa) or MINT (Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey).

Fastest growing populations

“The top 10 countries with the fastest-growing HNW populations are a motley group,” says the report which regards HNW individuals as people with a net worth of between $1 million (Sh101.74 million) and $30 million (Sh3.1 billion).

“With a growth measure we would expect to see some less affluent countries with small HNW populations, but Poland and Kenya are two surprising cases, as they are not included in any of the growing number of acronym groupings.”

BRIC brings together countries deemed to be at stage of newly-advanced economic development while CIVETS comprises six countries regarded as favoured emerging markets on the such basis as diverse and dynamic economies with young, growing populations.

Other acronym groupings include EAGLES, which describe the emerging and growth-leading economies of Korea, Indonesia, Mexico, Turkey, Egypt and Taiwan, as well as BRIC countries.

According to Wealth-X estimates, the number of individuals in the HNW bracket totalled 22.4 million in 2018, with a combined net worth of $61.3 trillion.

The ranking took into account current wealth levels, population growth estimates and anticipated future investment opportunities.

Nigeria tops

Nigeria tops the log with a compound annual growth rate of 16.3 percent, followed by Egypt at 12.5 percent.

Bangladesh, Vietnam and Poland are also ahead of Kenya with expected growth rates of 11.4, 10.1 and 10 percent respectively.

Kenya beats India, the Philippines and Ukraine, whose number of HNW individuals are forecast to grow at 9.7, 9.4 and 9.2 percent respectively.

The report supports the findings in the Wealth-X’s World Ultra Wealth Report 2018 that also found that the number of Kenya’s ultra-rich grew by 11.7 percent in 2017, ahead of India, Hong Kong and the United States.

It classifies the ultra-rich as people with a net worth of more than Sh3.1 billion.

Realtor Knight Frank also published a report showing that Kenya created 180 new dollar millionaires in 2017, swelling the number of persons with a net worth of more than Sh500 million to 1,290.