Report: Kenya has fastest growing rate of millionaires in the world

The rate at which Kenya minted millionaires between 2014 and 2019 was the fastest in the world, a new wealth report has shown.

The number of individuals worth KSh 100 million and above increased by 263 per cent between 2014 and 2019, beating even China.

The creation of dollar millionaires is despite a dire state of the economy in which businesses have been sacking workers and closing shop.

Kenya’s rate was higher than China’s, the world’s second largest economy and which during the period enjoyed faster economic growth than Kenya.

National Treasury estimates the economy to have expanded by 5.6 per cent last year, a slow-down compared to 6.3 per cent in 2018.

But ironically, some Kenyans suddenly found themselves super-rich, with the number of dollar millionaires growing from a low of 800 in 2014 to a high of 3,360 in 2018 before it tapered off to 2,900.

The finding by property management firm Knight Frank shows that the 263 per cent growth in the number of dollar-millionaires during the period was by far the fastest in the world, even as majority of Kenyans struggled to put food on the table.

Various reasons can be attributed to the drop, key among them the revaluation of investments and crackdown on corrupt individuals.

The baffling statistics are contained in the Wealth Report 2020, which sought to get a tally of high net worth individuals from 44 countries, including the US and China.

While the size of Kenya’s economy — measured by adding up all goods and services produced in a year– expanded by an average 5.64 per cent between 2014 and 2018, that of China grew by an average of 6.88 per cent during this period.

India, which enjoyed a higher economic growth during this period, 7.2 per cent, minted new dollar millionaires at a rate of 168 per cent. In a country where majority of its population are poor, this is likely to ignite debate on how people became overnight millionaires.

Critics reckon that President Uhuru Kenyatta’s first term in office enabled ‘tenderpreneurs’ to thrive, with a few well-connected individuals enriching themselves by unscrupulously bagging major tenders.

Samuel Nyandemo, an Economics lecturer at the University of Nairobi, believes the growth in the number of billionaires in Kenya is skewed, and does not reflect the economic situation.

“If they are rich as they claim, how did they accumulate their wealth? Is it by engaging in productive activities or is it by stealing?” Dr Nyandemo asked. “If this wealth was created genuinely, it would have trickled down to the economy”.

The US had the most number of dollar-millionaires, 16.4 million, followed by China with 7.3 million individuals who are worth KSh 100 million and above.

US also leads in the number of the ultra-rich, those with $30 million (Sh3 billion) and above, at 240,575 followed by China with 61,587. Third is Germany with 23,078 followed by France with 18,776.

There are 2,335 dollar billionaires in the world, or individuals with KSh 100 billion and above.

Close to a third of them, 631, are US citizens. China has the second largest number of dollar billionaires.

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