Kenya Matches China, World’s 2nd Largest Economy in Millionaire Growth Rate

The first Wealth-X High Net Worth (HNW) Handbook, which was released on January 16, has estimated that Kenya’s pace of millionaire growth will rise at the rate of 9.8 percent, the same rate as that of the world’s leading economy, China.

Wealth-X, a global research company that keeps track of affluence worldwide tied Kenya with China at the sixth position making it the third country in Africa after Nigeria and Egypt.

The report groups Kenya among countries that are primed to mint new millionaires at the highest rate in the next five years.

Kenya is now among the top 10 global economies that will make new High Net Worth (HNW) individuals, faster than the general economic expansion trends.

Individuals regarded as HNW have a net worth of between 1 million US dollars and 30 million dollars.

According to the report, only Kenya and Poland were the only countries that did not fall under the high-end economic groupings like BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China), which features countries perceived to be at a stage of newly-advanced economic development, CIVETS (Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey and South Africa) or MINT for Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey.

“The top 10 countries with the fastest-growing HNW populations are a motley group. […] 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 numbers of acronym groupings,” the report said.

Countries under the CIVETS acronym grouping includes six countries deemed to be on the emerging markets based on diverse and dynamic economies with young, growing populations. Of course, there are other groupings like EAGLES standing for emerging and growth-leading economies of several countries such as Korea, Indonesia, Mexico, Turkey, Egypt, and Taiwan, as well as the other countries falling under the BRIC category.

By factoring in the current wealth levels, population growth estimates, and anticipated future investment opportunities, Wealth-X estimated that individuals under the HNW bracket had a combined net worth of 61.3 trillion US dollars and they totaled 22.4 million persons.

In Africa, Nigeria led with 16.3 percent annual growth rate followed by Egypt then Kenya with 12.5 and 9.8 percent respectively.

Notably, according to Wealth-X’s 2018 World Ultra Wealth Report, the number of ultra-rich in Kenya rose by 11.7 percent in 2017 beating the United States, India, and Hong Kong.

With the ultra-rich classified as persons with a net worth of more than 3.1 billion shillings, it means that Kenya is picking up the pace in terms of making millionaires.