Mauritius Has The Fastest Growing Wealth Market In Africa – Report
Port Louis, capital city of Mauritius. Photo: travelvista.net
Mauritius, an Indian Ocean island in sub-Saharan Africa, is the fastest growing wealth market on the continent with 3,200 millionaires, according to a report by the New World Wealth Investment Review.
The average person on the island is worth $ 21,700, which is more than second-placed South Africa, Africa’s biggest economy where the average person is worth about $10,300.
“The number of United States dollar millionaires living in Mauritius has increased by 340 percent since 2000, to reach 3,200 in 2015 and the number is expected to rise by another 130 percent in the next 10 years, reaching 7,400 by 2025, making it the fastest growing African market for millionaires over this period,” read the report.
The economy is projected to grow at a rate of 3.8 percent this year, an increase from 3.7 percent in 2015, as several sectors including real estate, information and communication, financial and insurance sectors enjoying a boom.
The information and communication sector grew by 6.3 percent last year, while the financial and insurance industry recorded a 5.6 percent growth and are both projected to improve this year.
The tourism industry recorded 586, 464 visitors in the first six months of the year, a 10 percent rise from a similar period in 2015.
The nation expects the numbers to hit 1,240,000 by the end of the year, further boosting the island’s vibrant economy, Reuters reported.
The growth in tourism and the manufacturing sector is a major diversification from decades of over-reliance on sugar exports.
The jewelry industry, is the third biggest manufacturing sector, with over 3,000 employees. It exported $80.9 million worth of products last year and has attracted investors from France, Switzerland, Italy and Germany, according to data by Enterprise Mauritius.
In the first quarter of the year, real estate attracted 80 percent of the total Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). The island’s projected FDI inflow by the end of the year is $395 million, an increase from $270.9 million in 2015, Bloomberg reported.
The island is ranked by World Bank’s 2016 Doing Business Report as the leading destination in sub-Saharan Africa in ease of doing business, with its free market policies, an attractive tax regime, well-developed offshore banking services and multilingual population and stable democracy pulling investors into the nation.
Low crime rates, an increasing number of internationally recognized schools and tertiary institutions, warm all-year-round weather and a low inflation rate are other factors attracting foreigners to settle in the nation.
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