Despite difficult years for the economy, South Africa is still home to more than twice as many millionaires as any other African country, with 37,400 millionaires, 102 millionaires and 5 billionaires.
The number of millionaires does not translate into the strength of currencies
Egypt with 15,600 millionaires and 7 billionaires came in second place, followed by Nigeria with 8,200 millionaires. Kenya has 7,200 millionaires, Morocco 6,800, Mauritius 5,100, Algeria 2,800, Ghana 2,700, Ethiopia 2,700, and Namibia, closing the ten, has 2,300 rich people.
However, the number of millionaires does not translate into the strength of currencies. The South African rand fell by 43%. against the US dollar from 2013 to 2023, and the currencies of Nigeria, Egypt, and Angola perform even worse.
African millionaires also prefer other continents to live. In the past decade, approximately 18,700 wealthy people left their homeland. There are currently 54 African-born billionaires in the world, including one of the richest people, Elon Musk, born in South Africa.
Mauritius, located in the Indian Ocean, is the best performing country in terms of prospects and, according to forecasts, it will enjoy an extraordinary growth rate of 95% in the coming years. Mauritius is already one of the fastest growing wealth markets in the world. This is largely due to millionaires from Russia investing in real estate.
Africa is the continent with the poorest countries in the world
It is therefore not surprising that a square meter of real estate on the northern end of this island in Grand Baie currently costs around PLN 5,000. dollars. In Africa, it is more expensive only in Cape Town, where prices of luxury apartments start from PLN 5.6 thousand. dollars per square meter.
Africa is also the continent with the poorest countries in the world, which occupy the top ten list published by the International Monetary Fund. South Sudan opens it with less than 500 dollars per inhabitant, and Madagascar closes with less than 2,000 dollars. In between are Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mozambique, Malawi, Niger, Chad and Liberia.
Some countries have limited raw materials, a weak financial sector and a weak tax system, others have wars and political instability. And everyone, even those on the rich list, faces an unfair distribution of income. This is most visible in South Africa and Namibia, which, according to the World Bank report, with the Gini index of 63 for South Africa and 59.1 for Namibia, took the highest positions in the world in terms of inequality.
The Gini index measures the extent to which the distribution of income between individuals or households deviates from a perfectly equal distribution.
From Monrovia Tadeusz Brzozowski
