Africa Has 122,500 Millionaires. A Third of Them Live in One Country.

JOHANNESBURG — Africa's wealth story is usually told through GDP figures, population growth or mineral reserves. The Africa Wealth Report 2025, published by Henley & Partners with New World Wealth, asks a narrower and more revealing question: where does the continent's private wealth actually sit, and where is it moving? The answer is that Africa's wealth is both extremely concentrated and, at the same time, actively redistributing itself in ways the headline concentration figures don't capture. The Full Ranking RankCountryMillionaires2015-2025 Growth 1South Africa41,100-6%2Egypt14,800n/a3Morocco7,500+40%4Nigeria7,200-47%5Kenya6,800+14%6Mauritius4,800+63%7Algeria2,700-23%8Ghana2,600+20%9Namibia2,500+28%10Ethiopia2,400+30%11Angola2,300-36%12Tanzania2,100+17%13Côte d'Ivoire2,000+25%14Botswana1,700n/a15Uganda1,600+33%16Rwanda1,000+48%17Zambia1,000n/a18Mozambique800n/a19Seychelles500n/aSource: Africa Wealth Report 2025, Henley & Partners and New World Wealth, as of June 2025. Tunisia and the DRC are excluded; New World Wealth judged available source data insufficiently reliable for inclusion. One Country, a Third of the Continent's Wealth South Africa's position is not a close contest. Its 41,100 millionaires represent roughly a third of every dollar millionaire tracked across Africa, and Henley & Partners describes that figure as approximately equal to the combined millionaire populations of the next five wealthiest countries on the continent. That dominance rests on decades of accumulated private capital: a sophisticated financial sector, deep capital markets, established corporations and a large professional and entrepreneurial class. Johannesburg alone holds 11,700 resident millionaires, Africa's wealthiest city by a wide margin, with Cape Town second at 8,500 and on track, per the report, to overtake Johannesburg in total wealth by 2030. That dominance comes with a genuine warning attached. South Africa's millionaire population actually declined 6% between 2015 and 2025, a contraction the report attributes to structural economic challenges, political uncertainty and the emigration of wealthy individuals. Having the largest stock of wealth on the continent evidently doesn't guarantee it keeps growing. Africa's Millionaire Population Is Shrinking Overall, Even as It Grows in Specific Places The most important number in the entire report may be the one that gets the least attention: Africa's total millionaire population contracted by roughly 5% over the past decade, according to Henley & Partners' own chief economist. That's a genuinely different story than "Africa's wealth is rising broadly," and it reframes everything else in the report. The concentration and growth figures aren't describing a continent where private wealth is simply accumulating everywhere. They're describing a continent where wealth is being actively lost in some of its largest markets and captured, often at striking growth rates, in others. Nigeria is the starkest example of loss: still Africa's fourth-largest wealth market by absolute numbers, with 7,200 millionaires, but down 47% since 2015, a collapse the report links to currency instability, economic disruption and capital flight rather than any loss of underlying economic potential. Angola (-36%) and Algeria (-23%) show the same pattern at smaller scale. The lesson for any government reading this data is explicit: attracting capital and retaining it are two different policy problems, and a country can fail at the second even while succeeding at the first. Kenya's Lead in East Africa Isn't About Population, It's About Nairobi Kenya's 6,800 millionaires put it fifth continentally and comfortably ahead of every other East African market: more than three times Tanzania's count, more than four times Rwanda's. That lead is not a simple function of Kenya's population or GDP. It's a function of Nairobi specifically, which holds 4,200 of Kenya's 6,800 millionaires, nearly half the national total, and accounts for 47% of the country's total private wealth by the report's estimate. Nairobi's millionaire population also grew 14% over the decade, evidence that the city's concentration of finance, technology, professional services, international organisations and regional corporate headquarters continues actively drawing in wealth rather than simply holding what accumulated there historically. Tanzania Is Growing Faster Than Kenya, From a Much Smaller Base Tanzania sits 12th continentally with 2,100 millionaires, ahead of Botswana, Uganda, Rwanda, Zambia, Mozambique and Seychelles, but well behind Ethiopia, Namibia, Ghana, Algeria and Mauritius. The more revealing number is growth: Tanzania's millionaire population expanded 17% between 2015 and 2025, faster than South Africa's outright decline and faster than Botswana's, Zambia's or Mozambique's growth, though still trailing several smaller markets by a wide margin. That produces a genuine contradiction worth sitting with. Tanzania has a large domestic market, a rapidly expanding economy, an Indian Ocean gateway and substantial natural resources and infrastructure investment, this publication has covered the investment case extensively, yet its measurable private wealth remains a fraction of Kenya's. GDP growth and private wealth accumulation are related but not identical processes; an economy can expand significantly without a proportional increase in the number of people who personally accumulate a million dollars or more, depending on how much of that growth translates into private business ownership, equity and investable capital rather than wages, state revenue or foreign-owned capital. The Fastest Growth Is Happening in the Smallest Markets Mauritius produced the single most striking number in the report: 63% millionaire growth over the decade, the fastest of any African market tracked, despite starting from a base of just 4,800 millionaires today. That growth rests on a specific, replicable formula, political stability, international financial connectivity, tax efficiency and a residence-by-investment programme, factors Henley & Partners credits directly for the country's wealth expansion. Mauritius demonstrates that neither population size nor natural resource endowment is a precondition for rapid wealth creation; institutions and the ability to attract and retain global capital matter more. Rwanda tells a similar story at even smaller scale: just 1,000 millionaires today, but 48% growth over the decade, built without the natural resource base or population scale available to Africa's larger economies, and instead on services, tourism, finance and Kigali's positioning as a regional business centre. Uganda (33% growth, 1,600 millionaires) and Ethiopia (30% growth, 2,400 millionaires) show the same pattern from low bases, alongside Morocco (40%), Namibia (28%), Côte d'Ivoire (25%) and Ghana (20%). None of these countries are close to challenging South Africa or Egypt in absolute terms. All of them are growing their wealthy populations meaningfully faster than the continent's established giants. What This Actually Measures, and What It Doesn't A rising millionaire count is not evidence of inclusive development, and the report itself shouldn't be read as a proxy for living standards; private wealth can grow alongside inequality, weak public services and widespread poverty in the same country. What the geography of private wealth does reveal is something narrower but genuinely useful: where businesses can grow, where capital can be productively deployed, where property and financial markets function, and where wealthy individuals currently believe their assets are safe enough to keep in-country rather than move offshore. That makes millionaire concentration and growth a reasonable, if partial, proxy for the underlying quality and trajectory of an economy's institutions, even when it says little about how that economy's benefits are being distributed. The Real Competition Is for Wealth That Hasn't Been Created Yet Africa currently counts just 25 billionaires and 348 centi-millionaires against 122,500 millionaires, and Henley & Partners projects the millionaire population will grow 65% over the next decade. That projection is the real stake behind this report: the question isn't simply who holds Africa's wealth today, but which countries capture the next generation of it. Nigeria's experience shows that established markets can lose wealth as fast as they create it. Mauritius and Rwanda show that small, resource-poor markets can out-grow much larger ones through institutions and capital-attraction strategy alone. Whether Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia and Rwanda convert their current growth rates into a meaningfully larger share of Africa's wealth over the next decade will depend less on the resources and population they already have than on whether they build competitive businesses, deepen financial markets, and make it easier for wealthy individuals and entrepreneurs to keep their capital, and their wealth, inside the country that created it. FAQ How many millionaires does Africa have? Approximately 122,500 as of June 2025, alongside 348 centi-millionaires (net worth above $100 million) and 25 billionaires, according to the Africa Wealth Report 2025 from Henley & Partners and New World Wealth. Which African country has the most millionaires? South Africa, with an estimated 41,100, roughly a third of the continental total and, per Henley & Partners, approximately equal to the combined millionaire count of the next five wealthiest African countries. Is Africa's overall wealth actually growing? It's mixed. The continent's total millionaire population actually contracted by roughly 5% over the past decade, driven by sharp declines in Nigeria (-47%), Angola (-36%) and Algeria (-23%), even as several smaller markets, including Mauritius (+63%) and Rwanda (+48%), grew rapidly over the same period. How does Kenya compare to the rest of East Africa? Kenya leads by a wide margin with 6,800 millionaires, more than three times Tanzania's count and more than four times Rwanda's, driven substantially by Nairobi, which alone holds 4,200 millionaires, nearly half of Kenya's national total. Is Tanzania catching up to Kenya in wealth creation? Not yet in absolute terms, Tanzania's 2,100 millionaires remain far behind Kenya's 6,800, but Tanzania's millionaire population grew 17% between 2015 and 2025, faster growth than several larger markets, including South Africa's outright decline. Why isn't the DRC included in the ranking? New World Wealth, which supplies the underlying data, judged the available source data for the DRC and Tunisia insufficiently reliable for inclusion, meaning the ranking should be read as a map of measurable wealth in the markets covered, not a complete continental census.