Lagos billionaires, millionaires decline massively in three years —Report

The number of billionaires and millionaires in Lagos State have declined significantly in the last three years, as the 2021 Africa Wealth Report on wealthiest cities on the continent reported 27 percent fall.

Lagos billionaires and millionaires are declining

Although Lagos continued to retain its fourth position among the wealthiest cities in Africa, between 2017 to 2020, the total wealth of its high networth individuals dropped to $88 million last year, from $96 billion reported in 2019.

In 2018, the total wealth of individuals living in the state was $108 billion, and a year before, it was $120 billion. While this reflects a decline, it was enough to put Lagos far above Abuja, which was the other Nigerian state to make the list at 19th position.

Wealth of Abuja’s high networth individuals was put at $10 billion. It was reported that Abuja has no billionaires in dollars, but the capital of Nigeria has 40 multi-millionaires and 600 millionaires.

Meanwhile, Lagos State, as at 2020, has two individuals worth billion of dollars, against the four billionaires it had in 2017, the report released by AfrAsia Bank and the New World Wealth (NWW) showed.

Read also: Naira depreciation, fall in oil price cost wealthy Nigerians $18bn

In 2017, there were 360 multi-millionaires and 6,800 millionaires in Lagos State, but three years after, the number was down to 260 multi-millionaires and 5,000 millionaires.

The report stated that within the period under review, the number of wealthy people living in the state reduced by two billionaires, 100 multi-millionaires, and 1,800 millionaires.

Johannesburg, Cape Town, Cairo and Durban & Umhlanga completed the list of the wealthiest cities in Africa.

Nigeria, one of the worst in country performance

In terms of country position, Nigeria was third behind South Africa, Egypt, and above Morocco and Kenya – which all account for over 50 percent of Africa’s total wealth.

According to the report obtained by Ripples Nigeria, in 10-year growth rate, Nigeria occupied 16th position, with -33 percent, out of 17 countries surveyed – while Ethiopia, Mauritius, Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda made the top five.

In the wealth per capita segment, the country was placed in the 11th position, while countries like Mauritius, South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Morocco occupied the top five.

In a statement addressing Nigeria’s growth performance, it was stated that the country’s growth has been on a downward path since 2014, “Nigeria started off the review period relatively well, but since 2014 has performed poorly.”

Reasons for the poor performance were: Significant loss of currency value, drop in oil prices and migration of high networth individuals.

By Fakoyejo Ayodeji…

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