More Billionaires Join Dangote, Adenuga as Report Shows New List in 2025
- The Africa Wealth Report 2025 highlights the rise of wealth in Sub-Saharan Africa, with 122,500 millionaires, 348 centi-millionaires, and 25 billionaires
- South Africa remains the top millionaire hub, but new wealth centers are emerging, with Mauritius and Morocco showing significant growth
- Africa's investment migration programs are attracting global capital, while Africans are also increasingly exploring alternative citizenship and residency options
Legit.ng journalist Zainab Iwayemi has 5-year-experience covering the Economy, Technology, and Capital Market.
Henley & Partners's Africa Wealth Report 2025 have shown that there are currently 122,500 millionaires, 348 centi-millionaires (those with a net worth of $100 million or more), and 25 billionaires on the continent.
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This suggests a more profound shift in the location and methods of wealth creation, with Sub-Saharan Africa now playing a bigger role than in the past, the report highlighted.
Due to stock market advances that increased firm valuations, the number of billionaires increased from 22 to 25. This year alone, five people have become billionaires.
These include Egyptian real estate tycoon Hisham Talaat Moustafa and Malawian banker and businessman Thom Mpinganjira, whose companies' shares have risen above $1 billion.
Their ascent demonstrates how, despite uncertainty in the global economy, Africa's stock exchanges are becoming more and more important for creating wealth.
In 2025, Sub-Saharan Africa is predicted to increase by 3.7 percent, far faster than both the US and Europe, which are predicted to rise by 1.4 and 0.7 percent, respectively.
The continent's status as a new hub of wealth is bolstered by growing individual wealth, a variety of investment avenues, and a flourishing market for residency and citizenship programs.
South Africa tops millionaire ranks
With 41,100 millionaires, South Africa continues to lead the continent, followed by Egypt, Morocco, Nigeria, and Kenya. The emergence of new wealth hubs, however, is the more significant tale. Over the last ten years, Morocco's millionaire population has increased by 40%, while Mauritius' has increased by 63%. Nigeria's millionaire population has decreased by almost half, while South Africa's has decreased by 6%.
Wealth is attracting to cities and areas that provide stability, a high standard of living, and robust investment prospects at an unprecedented rate. The number of millionaires in the Black River region of Mauritius has more than doubled, increasing by 105% in just ten years. Cape Whale Coast in South Africa has increased by 50%, and Marrakech has increased by 67%. Cape Town remains unique: prime real estate prices there now exceed $5,800 per square meter, the highest in Africa, and the city's millionaire population has increased by a third.
Africa's investment migration programs are becoming more and more significant in luring capital, and South Africa and Egypt are currently among the top 10 countries in the world for applications for citizenship and residency. Mauritius, Egypt, and São Tomé and Príncipe have implemented programs that direct investor funds into high-priority projects like renewable energy, infrastructure, and other areas.
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Africans themselves are also becoming more interested in alternate citizenship and places to live. Portugal and Caribbean nations were among the top options for mobility and travel access, and applications increased by 50% in 2024. Africa is simultaneously becoming a stand-alone travel destination.
The residence-by-investment plan in Mauritius has contributed to the country's 63% growth in millionaires. While São Tomé and Príncipe's $90,000 option is closely linked to renewable energy projects through a National Transformation Fund, Egypt's scheme, which starts at $250,000, is also gaining attention.
Two Nigerians Rise in Global Billionaires Ranking
Legit.ng reported that Nigerian billionaire industrialist, Aliko Dangote, has consolidated his position as Africa’s wealthiest man, leading Forbes’ Real-Time Billionaires List, with a staggering net worth of $24.4 billion, ranking 88th globally.
The new ranking, which was released over the weekend, shows Dangote’s continued dominance in Nigeria and Africa’s wealth hierarchy, where he stands ahead of his Nigerian peers.
Coming second in Africa is a fellow Nigerian and an industrialist, Abdulsamad Rabiu, who is ranked 516th world’s wealthiest men.
Source: Legit.ng
