South Africa’s commercial capital, Johannesburg, remains Africa’s wealthiest, according to the World’s Wealthiest Cities Report 2023. Nigeria’s commercial…
South Africa’s commercial capital, Johannesburg, remains Africa’s wealthiest, according to the World’s Wealthiest Cities Report 2023. Nigeria’s commercial capital, Lagos, is Africa’s fourth wealthiest city, trailing behind Johannesburg, Egypt’s Cairo, and another South African city, Cape Town.
According to the report released by Henley and Partners, which features exclusive data highlighting the world’s wealthiest and fastest-growing cities, no African city was found among the top 50 wealthiest cities of the world.
The list, dominated by cities from around Europe, North America and Asia, is characterised based on the most millionaires, centimillionaires, and billionaires and is also accompanied by global and real estate insights from leading academic and industry experts.
According to the reports, New York City is the world’s top city with the most millionaires in 2023. Also, seven of the world’s top 10 cities listed are in countries that host formal investment migration programs and actively encourage foreign direct investment in return for residence or citizenship rights.
Africa conspicuously absent
Africa is the second largest and second most populous continent in the world, yet its cities are conspicuously absent from the list of the world’s wealthiest cities. This can be attributed to several factors, including historical colonization and economic exploitation, political instability, inadequate infrastructure, and poverty.
According to the list, only two billionaires and thirty centimillionaires are found in Johannesburg, the wealthiest city in South Africa. On the other hand, Cairo, which is renowned for its historical history and trade prowess, has five billionaires and twenty-seven centimillionaires.
The fact that 3 out of the 4 nations indicated above had negative growth rates for high-net-worth investors is likely the clearest indication that Africa lacks the necessary investment. High-net-worth investors have increased by -40%, -25%, and -30% in Johannesburg, Cairo, and Lagos since 2012, indicating that activity in these locations has been low compared to the rest of the world.
With its size and population, Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial and technological hub, only has three billionaires and 16 centimillionaires. While only 11 centimillionaires live in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, with no billionaires.
Only Cape Town and Nairobi saw their investment portfolios rise throughout the period under consideration. The number of HNWIs in the four cities cited was 14,600 in Johannesburg, 7400 in Cairo, 5400 in Lagos, and 4700 in Nairobi.
Despite its vast natural resources and potential for economic growth, Africa faces significant challenges in achieving sustainable development and creating wealth for its cities. In this context, it is crucial to examine the reasons why African cities have been left behind in the global economic landscape and explore potential strategies for overcoming these challenges.
Creating wealth in African cities requires a multifaceted approach that addresses various challenges and takes advantage of available opportunities. And just like the list reveals, an economy that not only encourages foreign direct investment but one that actively creates wealth with the needed form of regulation, free market, and increased ease of doing business.
Not to mention, there is the need for Africa to invest in its infrastructural landscape, promote a digital economy, challenge the rest of the world or at least seek to compare in terms of intensive and intentional investment in its human capital.
More on the wealthiest cities list
As mentioned earlier, new york leads the list with about 58 billionaires and 724 centimillionaires. The city boasts over 340,000 high-net-worths-investors, with a subsequent growth rate of 40% of those investors from 2012 to 2022.
Tokyo, the Bay Area, London, Singapore, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, and Sydney in Australia round out the top 10. Tokyo and Sydney have the fewest billionaires on this list, with 15 and 14 billionaires, respectively. The Bay Area in the US alone has 63, while others are ranked with no fewer than 20 apiece.
The list shows that Europe, Asia, and North America have some of the most stable economic environments, drawing the large number of HNWIs they have over the years. In addition, these cities and states have collectively and deliberately invested in their infrastructure to support the required tech invasion and disruptions, strategically positioning them on the wealth map.