By Business Daily Africa
Nairobi has been ranked as the 74th wealthiest city in the world and fourth in Africa, boosted by growth in the number of high net worth individuals (HNWI) by 30 percent in the last decade.
The World’s Wealthiest Cities 2023 report by consultancy New World Wealth and Henley Partners placed the Kenyan capital city among the top cities globally with the fastest-growing numbers of dollar millionaires.
The latest report, which tracks private wealth migration trends worldwide, shows Nairobi has 4,700 highly wealthy individuals with at least $1 million in net worth, and 11 centi-millionaires (people with a net worth of over $100 million).
However, Kenya did not have a single-dollar billionaire in the rankings.
Mombasa emerged 93rd in the global wealth ranking, toppling other large East African cities such as Kampala that did not make it to the wealthiest 97 cities sampled in the survey.
The latest ranking of Mombasa as a millionaire hotspot highlights the significance that tourism has played in the port city.
South Africa and Egypt had the most cities in Africa in the ranking, led by Johannesburg which has 14,600 dollar millionaires – the most in Africa.
However, this was a decline from the 15,200 millionaires reported in the 2022 report.
The second spot was taken by Egypt’s capital Cairo, which has 7,800 HNWIs, but which also recorded a decline from 7,400 in the previous report.
South Africa’s second-largest city Cape Town emerged third in the continent with 7,200 millionaires, followed by Nigeria’s most populous city, Lagos, which has 5,400 HNWI in the review period.
The number of dollar millionaires in Africa has been impacted by the global recession, a shortage of foreign currency and galloping inflation in most of the economies in the region.
These economic challenges highlight the difficulties facing investors amid a tough business environment driven by inflation.