According to Global research firm Wealth-X, which tracks affluence trends across the world, Kenya is listed among countries that are primed to mint new millionaires at the highest rate in the next five years.
The country is now ranked sixth globally and third in Africa after Nigeria and Egypt. Kenya’s projected millionaire growth pace is the same as that of China and both are tied at number six globally.
“The top 10 countries with the fastest-growing HNW populations are a motley group," says the report which regards HNW individuals as people with a net worth of between $1 million (Sh101.74 million) and $30 million (Sh3.1 billion).
Wealth-X estimates that Kenya’s millionaires will increase at a rate of 9.8 percent per annum for the next five years.
In 2017, the country produced close to 200 new millionaires with a total net worth of at least half a billion shillings. The number of people worth more than half a billion shillings rose to 1,290 in 2017, a 16.2 per cent increase from the 1,110 recorded in 2016, according to Knight Frank Wealth Report, 2018.
Out of the 1,290, 90 people are worth $50 million (Sh5 billion) or more while less than 10 are worth at least $500 million (Sh50 billion).
Wealth-X also puts Kenya in a special league of top 10 economies in the world where new high net worth (HNW) individuals will be minted faster than the overall economic expansion trends.
The report singles out Kenya and Poland as the only countries that are not in the elite leagues of economic groupings such as BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China), CIVETS (Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey and South Africa) or MINT (Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey).
"With a growth measure we would expect to see some less affluent countries with small HNW populations, but Poland and Kenya are two surprising cases, as they are not included in any of the growing numbers of acronym groupings,"
BRIC brings together countries deemed to be at the stage of newly-advanced economic development while CIVETS comprises six countries regarded as favoured emerging markets on such basis as diverse and dynamic economies with young, growing populations.
Other acronym groupings include EAGLES, which describe the emerging and growth-leading economies of Korea, Indonesia, Mexico, Turkey, Egypt and Taiwan, as well as BRIC countries.
