A recent report issued by Henley & Partners revealed remarkable changes in the map of wealth distribution within the African continent, where only 9 cities succeeded in entering the global “Al -Sunirat” club, that is, cities that include individuals with wealth exceeding $ 100 million.
The report – Al -Ma’in, “The Report of the Richest Cities for the year 2025” – refers to the export of cities from South Africa, Morocco, Egypt, Nigeria and Kenya, while social and economic gaps remain strongly present in those countries, which reflects a double reality of limited financial progress and imbalance in the distribution of wealth.
Rich cities in Africa
According to the classification of Henley & Partners, the African continent only includes 9 cities out of 141 global cities that embrace the category of “Malayer” (that is, those who have fortunes exceeding $ 100 million).
South Africa tops the list with 4 cities, namely Cape Town, Johannesburg, Cape Winlands, Ummanga-Palto, followed by Morocco with two cities: Casablanca and Marrakech, then Egypt (Cairo), Nigeria (Lagos) and Kenya (Nairobi).
Cape Town, the tourist capital of South Africa, witnessed a noticeable leap in the number of a millionaires, as their number increased from 26 years 2023 to 34 early 2025, bypassing Cairo in which the number of owners of these wealth settled at 27, and the Johannesburg whose number declined from 30 to 24 during the same period, as a result of a wave of immigration towards cities inside or outside the country.
The Cape Winlands region, in turn, registered an increase in the number of years of millionaires to 18, while Marrakesh ranked fifth in Africa with 14 individuals, despite the decrease in the number compared to the previous year.
As for Casablanca, the number of years has declined from 14 to 11, while Nairobi (Kenya) registered only 10.
On the global level, New York City continues to export the global scene with 818 million millionaires, followed by the San Francisco Bay region (756), then Los Angeles (516), London (352), and Hong Kong (346), which reflects the wide gap between the northern and south cities in the distribution of huge wealth.
Nairobi climbing
In Kenya, the figures indicate that Nairobi currently includes about 4400 millionaires and 9 years of millionaires, in addition to one billionaire, which makes it one of the fastest growing cities in East Africa in terms of individual wealth.
However, a field report published by the Kenyanz website reveals that only 10 people have fortunes of more than $ 90 million, highlighting the blatant disparity in the distribution of wealth inside the Kenyan capital.
Dynamic growth
Despite these positive indicators, experts draw attention to the fact that the expansion of wealth does not necessarily mean a fair distribution of them.
In these African cities, the social and economic gap remains in place, which requires more comprehensive economic strategies that address not only the accumulation of wealth, but how to direct them towards sustainable development.
