Accra expected to be the fastest growing African city for millionaires

Ghana’s capital Accra is expected to be the fastest growing major African city for millionaires over the next eight years, according to recent research by UK-based New World Wealth.

Accra’s number of high net worth individuals (HNWI) – with net assets of US$1 million or more, excluding their primary residences – are expected grow from 800 in 2012 to 1,500 in 2020.

New World Wealth told How we made it in Africa that it projects the growth in millionaires by using a number of variables, including economic growth in country, income distribution trends and recent HNWI growth trends in the city or country.

New World Wealth keeps its own HNWI database. “We source most of our names from company and director databases. We also have access to various luxury goods databases with a focus on prime property, yacht, art and private jet owners. The business interests of these individuals are calculated using listed company holdings. We then track liquidity and wealth events as they occur in order to calculate the liquid and investable holdings of these individuals. Liquidity event tracking also allows us to find new HNWIs as they emerge,” said New World Wealth senior analyst Andrew Amoils.

Africa's fastest growing cities for millionaires (2012 – 2020)
RankCityGrowth rate per annumMillionaires in 2012Millionaires in 2020
1.Accra8.0%8001,500
2.Nairobi6.3%5,0008,100
3.Lagos6.2%9,80015,800
4.Luanda6.0%2,4003,800
5.Dar es Salaam6.0%1,9003,000
6.Algiers5.0%2,3003,500
7.Casablanca4.5%2,7003,800
8.Durban3.7%2,7003,600
9.Pretoria3.5%2,5003,400
10.Johannesburg3.4%23,40030,600
Only includes cities with over 800 millionaires in 2012.