Kenya super rich club loses six members - Report

Nairobi Senator Johnson Sakaja carries bundles of cash at a past fundraiser in Kawangware, Nairobi. A survey has shown the distribution of the world’s most affluent. [File, Standard]

For about every 1.13 million people in Kenya, there is one super-rich fellow whose net worth is in the excess of Sh3 billion ($30m).

This means that there are only 42 ultra-high net worth individuals (UHNWIs) in Kenya, dropping from 48 in 2018.

Conversely, those who are worth over Sh1 billion (HNWIs) have also dropped from 3,399 to 2,900.

This is according to a report by the property consultants Knight Frank with three wealth bands: HNWIs, UHNWIs and Billionaires.

It ranked Kenya fourth in its Wealth Report list of African States’ ultra-rich.

Globally, Kenya is placed at position 113 in a list topped by the United States, China, Germany, France, Japan and the United Kingdom – in descending order.

South Africa houses Africa’s most moneyed at 1,033 super-rich individuals. It is followed by Nigeria with 724 and Morocco with 215.

While the number of ultra-rich dropped in Kenya, more than 31,000 people joined the exclusive ranks across the globe to 513,244. This growth represented a 6.4 per cent.

Knight Frank says the growth in 2019, which is described as a tumultuous year, was unsurprising, given the strong growth seen in many asset classes.

“Equity markets, including stock exchanges in the US, Germany and Australia, have seen double-digit growth, although the UK and Japan saw more modest returns,” the report read.

Among other factors, the real estate consultancy adds that heightened global geopolitical uncertainty also contributed to a rise in the value of “safe haven” assets, increasing the fortunes of the already super-rich.

“Gold hit a six-year high in September and, by the end of 2019, prices were some 16 per cent higher than they had been 12 months previously”.

The UHNWI population is expected to swell by a further 27 per cent to 650,000 by 2024, the report estimates.

“Of the top 20 fastest growing countries that we measure, six are located in Asia (led by India with 73 per cent growth), five are in Europe (led by Sweden with 47 per cent growth) and three are in Africa (led by Egypt with 66 per cent growth),” Knight Frank said.

Kenya’s UHNWIs are expected to grow by 14 per cent in the five years to return to 2018’s 48 super-rich.

Knight Frank based its predictions on a basket of drivers such as GDP growth, property price growth, interest rates and inflation.