Number of Ultra Rich Individuals in Kenya Drops to 42 in 2019 from 125 in 2018

A wealth report released by Knight Frank has revealed that Kenya has only 42 ultra rich individuals, meaning that they are worth over 30 billion shillings at the end of 2019.

This is a huge drop from 2018’s findings by the same research firm, where the ultra rich individuals stood at 125, meaning that 83 individuals lost some of their wealth during the course of 2019.

While the number of Ultra High Net Worth Individuals (UHNWIs) in Kenya fell by over 66 percent, the total number of UHNWIs in the world actually grew by 6.4 percent in 2019 as compared to 2018.

42 is a small figure as compared to the total number of Ultra rich individuals globally, which stood at 513,244 at the end of 2019.

The growth in the number of UHNWIs did not come as a surprise since there was growth around the globe in many asset classes such as equity markets.

Stock exchanges in the US, Germany, and Australia, for example, saw double-digit growth in 2019, although the UK and Japan saw more modest returns.

In Kenya, equity turnover at the Nairobi Securities Exchange (NSE) during the year declined by 12.9 percent to USD 1.5 billion, from USD 1.7 billion in FY’2018. This could be one of the reasons why the number of ultra rich individuals in the country dropped by over half.

According to the wealth report by Knight Frank, on average 23 percent of UHNWI investment portfolios are made up of equities, meaning that their performance makes a large contribution to rising wealth

Residential property also accounted for a large proportion of total ultra rich individuals’ wealth – almost a third.

Data from the report by Knight Frank indicates that the United States led the world with 240,575 UHNWIs, more than Europe and Asia combined and accounting for almost half the global total.

According to the wealth report, Asia is quickly closing the gap on Europe and by 2024 it will be the world’s second-largest wealth hub.

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