These 3 African Countries Are Minting Millionaires At A Rate Faster Than The United States

The United States and Japan house some of the largest proportion of rich people in the world, but neither of them are on the top 10 list of the fastest-growing high net worth countries in the world. This is despite being the leading economic powerhouses globally.

TOP 10 HIGH NET WORTH COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD

The U.S. remains by far the dominant high net worth nation, as it has done since the concept of high net worth was first recognized. However, as far as minting new millionaires is concerned, opportunities are knocking on the door in unexpected places as reported in the High Net Worth Handbook 2019 by Wealth-X,  a reputable global wealth research firm.

TOP 10 FASTEST GROWING HIGH NET WORTH COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD

When it comes to the top 10 fastest growing high net worth countries in the world, Africa is taking the lead. Nigeria takes the first position with an annual millionaire growth rate of 16.3 percent. Egypt comes in second globally, with the country expected to mint new millionaires at an annual rate of 12.5 percent. Kenya is ranked sixth in the new millionaires’ list. The country has a rate of 9.0 percent, the same position with China (the second biggest economy in the world). These African countries have set up a good breeding ground for new millionaires to be minted in the next five years.

Other countries in the top ten list include the following;

• Bangladesh takes the third position with 11.4 percent.
• Vietnam comes in the fourth position with 10.1 percent.
• Poland scoops the fifth position with 10.0 percent.
• India follows behind Kenya and China with 9.7 percent.
• The Philippines ranks in the eighth position with 9.4 percent.
• Ukraine sums up the list at the tenth position with 9.2 percent.

The report is based on research of 540,000 high net worth (HNW) individuals. These are defined as those individuals with $1 million to $30 million. Individuals worth above $30 million are referred to as Ultra High Net Worth (UHNW) and are not part of this report.

The report took account of the following parameters;

• Anticipated future economic and investment opportunities.
• Current wealth levels.
• Population growth projections.

Special and Surprising High Net Worth Countries

Nigeria (and Egypt) performance is impressive because of energy export gains. Bangladesh, on the other hand, gets its success from increased infrastructure investment and fast urbanization. What about Kenya? Kenya draws from greater structural investments. The same case applies to the Philippines, India, and Vietnam. Ukraine and Poland have booming tech sectors.

The research firm puts Kenya (and Poland) in a special category called “surprising cases”. These are the countries with faster HNW growth rates than the overall economic growth. In this case, developing countries with fewer wealthy individual have greater relative growth. Kenya and Poland are unique countries in the list because they do not belong to any major economic block.

Kenya is not in BRICS, (a block that includes Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa). It is not in MINT (Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria, and Turkey). Neither is it in EAGLES (Korea, Indonesia, Mexico, Turkey, Egypt and Taiwan).

“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,” the report noted.

These results confirm World Ultra Wealth Report 2018. This is an earlier report by the same company. The report showed that the number of ultra-rich individuals in Kenya grew significantly by 11.7 percent in 2017.

Chinese Economic Agenda

China, with its national economic agenda has continued to impress in the wealth sector. The country is projected to house 32 of the 40 HNW cities in the world in the next five years. The United States did not make it in the list despite being home to 8.7 million millionaires. This is understandable because it would be difficult to record the same growth rates with such a number of affluent individuals.