The ten-year forecast says Mozambique and Zambia millionaires will increase
The 2015 Africa Wealth Report shows that South Africa has the highest number of High Net Worth Individuals (HNWI) on the continent of Africa. Following in a close second, is Egypt, with exciting forecasts for Mozambique and Zambia.
African HNWI has increased by 145% over the past fourteen years. In South Africa, the Black Economic Empowerment Program has accounted for a number of the newly wealthy. The BEE was launched in South Africa as a way to address the inequality between black individuals and the wealthy whites in post –apartheid South Africa.
The combined wealth of the African HNWI’s is estimated to be in excess of US$660 billion. The Sunday Times reported in May this year, that there are vast discrepancies in South Africa. The super wealthy have a net worth of around $184 billion. There are about forty-six thousand millionaires in the country and they are living the high life.
Professor Dilip Garach told the Sunday Times that most of the newly rich have acquired their fortunes since the beginning of the Rainbow Nation in 1994. The divide between the wealthy whites and the wealthy blacks is becoming blurred.
At grass roots levels, however, the greater population of the country is struggling with rising costs of basic foodstuffs, loss of employment and downturn in the economy. Race is no longer a guarantee of wealth in South Africa. Many middle-income earners are facing hard times. More and more whites are working at laboring or minimal income jobs. Equality in poverty, one must suppose is, at least, better than no equality.
The Mozambique wealthy are projected to increase over the next ten years, and according to the World Bank, recent discoveries of oil and gas in Mozambique will pave the way for investment and wealth generation if the natural resources are correctly managed.
Zambia has long been defined as a country stricken by poverty. Fifty-eight percent of the rural community lives in extreme poverty. The disparity of wealth in the country is huge but the economic outlook is encouraging. Zambia has been performing well in recent years and the economy is expected to grow by a further six percent in 2016. Zambian super-wealthy individuals are projected to emerge from the tourism, business and mining sectors over the next ten years.
