Millionaires in Nigeria, Africa’s biggest oil producer, will rise 174% to 43,000 from 15,700 this year, the UK-based company said, after using a sample of high-net-worth individuals and World Bank data to compile a report.
The continent’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, hails from Nigeria and is reported to be worth more than $22bn.
South Africa will retain the highest number on the continent with a 78% increase to 86,700.
The country has grown its previously disadvantaged dollar millionaires to 7,800 last year from 4,300 in 2007 — although the rand has fallen about 25% to the dollar over this period.
This means about 16% of South Africa’s millionaires are black, Indian, coloured or Chinese, according to the research. Whites still dominate the list with 36,500 white males and 4,400 white females.
The names topping the list of the wealthiest black South Africans come as no surprise.
Patrice Motsepe of African Rainbow Minerals is ranked first with $2.6bn in wealth made from, among other things, mining interests. He is followed by Cyril Ramaphosa of Shanduka Group with $550m and Tokyo Sexwale of Mvelaphanda Group in third place with $200m. Both men have been major beneficiaries of black economic empowerment deals.
Exxaro Resources CEO Sipho Nkosi, who also owns a stake in Sanlam, makes fourth place on the list with $163m. Chairman and former CEO of MTN Phuthuma Nhleko ranks fifth with $142m.
"We expect Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya will be the main drivers of wealth management growth in Africa," Andrew Amoils, a Johannesburg-based analyst at New World Wealth, said. "They all already have relatively well developed banking sectors so private banking is a logical next step."
Barclays and HSBC Holdings are among the banks seeking to attract rich African clients as the expansion of industries from commodities to telecommunications creates more millionaires.
UBS, the world’s biggest wealth manager, is targeting individuals in Nigeria and Angola and sees potential in Ghana, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Botswana, Sean Bennett, the bank’s Johannesburg-based MD in sub-Saharan Africa, said last month.
Nigeria will leapfrog Egypt into second place behind South Africa, with Kenya in fourth place, in New World Wealth’s projected 2030 ranking of African countries by dollar millionaires.
Millionaires in Ghana will triple by 2030 with an advance of 144% in Angola, the report said. The number of high-net-worth individuals in Ethiopia, which grew the fastest over the past six years, will almost triple to 7,900 by 2030 amid a privatisation programme, said Mr Amoils.
Barclays’s African unit and Citigroup said in August that they saw opportunities managing wealth for Africans.
HSBC expects "selective growth" in Africa, primarily in South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya, an official at the lender said last month.
The number of Africans with at least $1m of investable assets climbed 9,9% to 140,000 last year, according to a report published in June by Cap Gemini and Royal Bank of Canada.
That was the fastest rate of increase outside North America as the economies of countries such as Nigeria and Ghana grew at more than 5% last year. The development of the continent’s wealth management market has some way to go.
The UK had 465,000 millionaires with 282,000 in Switzerland, according to Cap Gemini and Royal Bank of Canada.
Nigeria has a "pretty diverse spread of millionaires" with transport, finance, real estate, basic materials and telecommunications also driving the economy, Mr Amoils said yesterday.
High-net-worth individuals are accumulating fastest in Côte d’Ivoire, where millionaires are expected to more than triple to 7,200 by 2030 as cocoa and oil production boost the economy, according to New World Wealth.
Copper, agriculture exports and tourism will help triple millionaires to 2,700 in Zambia, where some rich farmers have relocated from neighbouring Zimbabwe, the firm said.
New World Wealth based some findings on research by Credit Suisse and Trading Economics.
