Nigerian Millionaires to Hit 23,000 in Nest Four Years

By Omoh Gabriel

A NEW report published by New
World Wealth has disclosed that
the number of Nigerians having
about N160 million investable
funds has risen to 15,700 as at
last year end.

It said that about
$82 billion of the wealth is held
abroad.
According to the report "The
number of people in Nigeria with
investable assets of at least $1
million will jump to 23,000 by
2017, after increasing by 44
percent over the past six years to
15,700 in 2013."

The
Johannesburg-based New World
Wealth in a report published,
yesterday, added that about 26
per cent of their $82 billion of
wealth was held offshore last
year, with the bulk of private-
banking funds deposited in the
U.K., Switzerland and the Channel
Islands.
Lagos, Nigeria's commercial
capital is home to 9,500
millionaires, or 61 per cent of
Nigeria's total. Next to Lagos the
report said is oil industry hub
Port Harcourt with 1,300 and the
capital Abuja with 600, according
to New World Wealth.

The oil and
gas industry was the source of
24 per cent of this wealth.
Nigeria is home to five
billionaires, according to the
report, including Africa's richest
man Aliko Dangote, whose
businesses range from cement to
sugar. Dangote has a net worth
of $25.2 billion.

The country has a
population of 167 million and
could officially become Africa's
largest economy this year,
overtaking South Africa, which
has an annual output of about
$320bn.
Nigeria will complete a
recalculation of its GDP, which
currently totals $295bn, in the
next few months.

This rebasing,
its first since 1990, will lead to
sectors that have boomed in the
past decade, such as telecoms
and banking, being given more
statistical weighting and likely
increase the size of the country's
economy by 30 per cent to 60
per cent.

However, for all the kudos that
will come with being Africa's
largest economy, the reality will
remain that more than half of
Nigeria's people live on less than
$2 a day and that despite the
recent rapid growth of its non-oil
sector, it is overly dependent on
the commodity, from which it
derives 70 per cent of
government revenues and 90 per
cent of export earnings.

In recent months, Nigeria has
been reminded of its
vulnerabilities. Its stock
exchange, having climbed 40 per
cent in 2013, has dropped
sharply and its currency has
weakened because of a fall in oil
revenues and foreign portfolio
inflows slowing as the US has
unwound its quantitative easing
programme.

The central bank
warned in January that
"monetary policy is almost at its
limits" in terms of keeping the
naira stable.

Reference: Vanguard