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Business News of Friday, 4 June 2021

Source: ripplesnigeria.com

Naira depreciation, fall in oil price cost wealthy Nigerians

Naira and Dollars Naira and Dollars

In the last two years, currency depreciation, and the drop in oil prices have cost wealthy Nigerians at least $18 billion in fortune.

This is according to a new Africa wealth research report that was recently released.

The report backed by AfrAsia bank in South Africa noted that the total wealth of Nigerians fell from $225 billion in 2018 to $207 billion at the end of 2020.

“As of 2018, the number of high nets worth individuals (HNWI) with over $1 million in the country was 9,900, by the end of 2020, the number has reduced to 9100,” it said.

Also, the report added that the number of multi-millionaires with more than $10 million in Nigeria has decreased from 500 to 460, trailing South Africa’s 1,930 multi-millionaires and Egypt’s 810 multi-millionaires.

Although the report failed to mention names nor identify their assets, it stated that there are four individuals with a wealth of over $1 billion in the country.

When wealth is broken down by city, Lagos State is Africa’s third-richest metropolis, with a total value of $88 billion.

Johannesburg remains the richest city on the continent, with 15,100 dollar millionaires as of 2020, up from 13,500 in 2019, and two persons with net assets exceeding $1 billion.

According to the report, there are 5,000 residents who are high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs) with at least $1 million, and 260 are multimillionaires with at least $10 million, including two individuals worth more than $1 billion.

Abuja is the only other Nigerian state on the list, with a total worth of $10 billion. 600 residents are HNWI with $1 million, and 30 multimillionaires, but no billionaires.

Explaining how it arrived at its ranking and figures, AfrAsia bank researchers said they used models to calculate wealth breakdowns for each country, with key inputs that include stock market, property, income, and GDP per capita statistics. Researchers also use historical in-house databases and account for currency, stock market, and property price movements, amongst others.

“From our findings, South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria, Morocco, and Kenya – together these five countries account for over 50% of Africa’s total wealth”, it stated.

On Nigeria, the report noted, “Nigeria started off the review period relatively well, but since 2014 has performed poorly. Possible reasons for its poor performance include Significant loss of currency, Drop in oil prices and migration of HNWIs out of the country.”