A new report by a global market research group, New World Wealth, has rated Nigeria as the third wealthiest country in Africa.
The report, which focused on 2017 fiscal year, ranked South Africa and Egypt as the first and second wealthiest countries in the continent.
New World Wealth, a South Africa-based global market research group that specializes in ratings, surveys, country reports and wealth statistics, estimated that the wealth held in Nigeria as at December 2017 totalled US$253 billion.
The major sectors studied in the report include, basic materials, real estate & construction, telecoms, transport and financial services and the report covers wealth, luxury, prime property and wealth management trends in Africa from 2007 to 2017, with projections to 2027.
New World Wealth also disclosed that Nigeria performed poorly in wealth growth in the year under review despite the advantage of the country’s high population.
According to the report, total wealth held in Africa has risen by 13 percent over the past 10 years (2007 to 2017) and by three percent as at 2017 with Mauritius ranking as the top-performing individual market during both of these periods.
The group reported further that Ethiopia also performed well even when the country started from a very low base, which makes growth easier, adding that average wealth in Ethiopia is currently at around US$700 per person which is still quite low despite recent growth.
It attributed Nigeria’s poor performance in 2017 to loss of local currency value vs US dollar, drop in local real estate prices in US dollar terms, outgoing migration of HNWIs with estimated 900 HNWIs leaving the country in 2017 and safety concerns, particularly women safety, in the country, which have deterred investment and discouraged wealthy people from staying in the country.
In addition, it projected that from 2017 to 2027 total private wealth held in Africa would rise by 34 percent over the 10-year period, peaking at about US$3.1 trillion by the end of 2027.
New Wealth World forecasts further: “We expect Mauritius, Ghana, Rwanda and Uganda to be the strongest performing wealth markets in Africa during this period (90% to 150% growth rates).
“Our projections for Ethiopia, Mozambique, Zambia, Kenya, Botswana and Namibia are also relatively solid (50% to 80% growth rates).
“Our projections for South Africa, Angola, Morocco, Egypt, Ivory Coast, Tanzania and Nigeria are less favourable, but still positive (10% to 30% growth rates)”, it predicted
The group disclosed that total individual wealth held on the continent amounted to US$2.3 trillion, with about US$920 billion, representing 40 percent held by HNWIs while the average African individual has net assets of approximately US$2,000 (wealth per capita).
In addition, it reported that there were approximately 148,000 HNWIs living in Africa, each with net assets of US$1 million or more just as there are approximately 7,100 multi-millionaires living in Africa, each with net assets of US$10 million or more.
The wealth statistics research group disclosed that there were approximately 320 centi-millionaires living in Africa, each with net assets of US$100 million or more while each of the 24 billionaires living in Africa has net assets of US$1 billion or more.
The group stated that “Total wealth” referred to the private wealth held by all the individuals living in each country, including all their assets in form of property, cash, equities, business interests, less any liabilities and excluding government funds.