Over the past decade, 19,000 Africans have become dollar millionaires. Africa's combined wealth has grown by 13% - 3% just in the last year alone. The combined individual wealth of all Africans is $2.3 trillion today – by the end of 2027, it will have increased by a third to $3.1 trillion. Clearly, it's boom time in Africa.
This map offers a revealing perspective on the wealth of the continent. The African subsoil may be resource-rich in many places, but as elsewhere in the world, it's in the great urban centres that money accumulates. And people too: by 2100, 13 of the world's 20 biggest megacities will be in Africa.
South Africa still boasts the main concentration of wealth in Africa, but no longer the only one.Image: Visual Capitalist
And this overview of Africa's richest cities, based on the The AfrAsia Bank Africa Wealth Report 2018, indicates where clusters of wealthy cities are developing across the continent, as well as showing a few more isolated locations of money aggregation.
- Long the most developed nation on the continent, South Africa – with four of Africa's ten richest cities – continues to be the economic engine of Africa's southern half. With a total GDP of $722 billion, South Africa as a whole continues to be the continent's wealthiest country, but on a per-capita basis it comes second after the tiny island nation of Mauritius ($32,700).
- The East African economy is dominated by a string of wealthy cities, from Uganda's capital Kampala via Nairobi and Mombasa in Kenya to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania's biggest city.
- In West Africa, a similar transnational conglomeration runs from Abidjan in Ivory Coast over Ghana's Accra to Lagos and Abidjan in Nigeria.
- In Morocco, Casablanca's wealth is flanked by that of Tangier and Marrakesh. In Egypt, Cairo dwarfs but not completely outshines Alexandria.
- The 'isolates', in descending order, are four capitals: Luanda (Angola), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Windhoek (Namibia) and Lusaka (Zambia).
Here are Africa's 10 wealthiest cities:
1. Johannesburg (South Africa): $276 billion
Jo'burg city centre.
Image: Brand South Africa
Fittingly, Africa's richest city was built on gold – on the Witwatersrand Gold Rush of 1886, to be exact. It's the commercial capital of South Africa and the wider region.
2. Cape Town (South Africa): $155 billion
View of Cape Town's City Bowl from Lion's Head, with Signal Hill and Cape Flats in the distance
Image: Martin Power, CC BY-SA 3.0
The city with Africa's highest prime residential rates, at around $6,100 per square metre (similar to DC or Berlin) also is an important hub for financial services, retail and tourism.
3. Cairo (Egypt): $140 billion
Rooftops of Cairo
Image: Luc Legay, CC BY-SA 2.0
Real estate, financial services and construction are some of the key sectors in this city of 9 million, the biggest metropolis in the Middle East.
4. Lagos (Nigeria): $108 billion
The Golden Plaza in Ikoyi, Lagos. On the left the Falomo Bridge to Victoria Island
Image: Ulf Ryttgens, CC BY-SA 1.0
It may no longer be the country's capital, Lagos still is the gateway for 80% of Nigeria's exports – and the centre of the burgeoning film industry, a.k.a. Nollywood. At 21 million inhabitants (2016 est.), it's Africa's largest metropolis, as well as one of the world's fastest-growing cities.
5. Durban (South Africa): $55 billion
Indian Ocean beach at Durban
Image: Brand South Africa
Subtropical Durban is South Africa's third-biggest city (after Johannesburg and Cape Town), second-biggest manufacturing hub and biggest port, as well as a major tourist destination. Durban's Gateway Theatre of Shopping is Africa's biggest mall. It has 12,000 parking slots, 390 stores, 90 restaurants, more than a dozen movie theatres (including an IMAX theatre), a skate park designed by Tony Hawk, and the highest fountain in Africa.
6. Nairobi (Kenya): $54 billion
Nairobi skyline
Image: © Sam Stearman
Kenya's capital and largest city (metro area: 7 million) Nairobi is also known as the Green City in the Sun. Founded in 1899 by the British as a rail depot, the city today is home to thousands of Kenyan businesses, as well as the Nairobi Securities Exchange, Africa's 4th-largest stock exchange; and regional hub for hundreds of multinationals.
7. Luanda (Angola): $49 billion
View of Luanda's harbour, with the Restinga peninsula in the background
Image: OneVillage Initiative, CC BY-SA 2.0
Luanda is the biggest city, major port and capital of Angola – and its metro area is home to one in three Angolans. While the majority of Luandans live in poverty, the booming oil and gas industry has created huge wealth for a minority (as well as a boom in banking and building). Luanda is one of the world's most expensive cities for ex-pats, in part because of high import tariffs imposed to help pay for diversifying the economy.
8. Pretoria (South Africa): $48 billion
Pretoria's central business district, seen from Muckleneuk Hill
Image: Petrus Potgieter/public domain
The administrative capital of South Africa and the hub of the wider Tshwane metro area, Pretoria is also a centre for academia and R&D, as well as commerce and industry, including metalworks to car factories.
9. Casablanca (Morocco): $42 billion
Dawn over Casablanca
Image: Achalhikarim, CC BY-SA 4.0
Officially ad-Dar al-Bayda in Arabic but informally known as Kaza, Casablanca is the largest city in the entire Maghreb region (metro area: 7 million), and its economic hub. It is important both as port city and financial centre. Major Moroccan and multinational companies are headquartered here rather than in the political capital Rabat.
10. Accra (Ghana): $38 billion
Independence Arch in Accra
Image: George Appiah, CC BY 2.0
A merger of coastal settlements around British, Dutch and Danish coastal forts, Accra in 1957 became the capital of sub-Saharan Africa's first independent nation. Today, it is a centre for manufacturing, marketing, finance, insurance, and transportation.
Over the next decade, the AfrAsia Bank's report expects growth to remain strong in South Africa, Angola, Morocco, Egypt, Ivory Coast, Tanzania and Nigeria – not coincidentally countries hosting many of the hubs shown on this map.
But the strongest growth projections apply to some of the smaller countries in Africa: Uganda, Rwanda, Ghana and Mauritius.
Map found here at Visual Capitalist.
Strange Maps #941
Got a strange map? Let me know at strangemaps@gmail.com.
Allegations that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted a woman in the early 1980s could halt a senate committee vote for his nomination, which is scheduled for Thursday.
His accuser, Christine Blasey Ford, came forward publicly on Sunday in an interview with the Washington Post. Ford, a clinical psychology professor at Palo Alto University in California, claims that Kavanaugh and a friend "physically pushed" her into a bedroom during a small gathering in suburban Maryland during the early 1980s.
Ford said Kavanaugh and his friend locked the door, turned on loud music and "tried to disrobe" her. She said Kavanaugh put his hand over her mouth, presumably to prevent her from successfully yelling for help.
"With Kavanaugh's hand over my mouth I feared he may inadvertently kill me," she wrote.
A possible delay of Kavanaugh’s confirmation
All 10 Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is controlled by 11 Republicans, have called for a delay in the confirmation vote scheduled Thursday.
"Now that her story is public, it is even more important that we give the Bureau the time it needs to follow up," the Democrats wrote in a letter to Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the chairman of the committee. "All Senators, regardless of party, should insist the FBI perform its due diligence and fully investigate the allegations as part of its review of Judge Kavanaugh's background."
The Democrats need just one Republican objection to force a delay on Kavanaugh's confirmation. Such an objection could come from Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona, who said he wants to learn more about the allegations before the vote.
"I've made it clear that I'm not comfortable moving ahead with the vote on Thursday if we have not heard her side of the story or explored this further," he told the Post.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, responded in a statement to the Post: "I agree with Senator Flake that we should delay this week's vote. There's a lot of information we don't know and the FBI should have the time it needs to investigate this new material. Staff calls aren't the appropriate way to handle this."
Democrats hope to delay Kavanaugh's confirmation long enough to prevent him from joining the high court in time for its fall term beginning Oct. 1 or even until the midterm elections in November, when Republicans could lose control of the senate.
Republicans face growing pressure to delay Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing until the FBI has time to investigate Christine Blasey Ford's allegations.
(Photo: SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images)
How the allegations arose
In July, Ford first raised the allegations to her congresswoman, Democrat Anna G. Eshoo. Soon after, a letter detailing the allegations was sent through Eshoo's office to Senator Feinstein.
"I felt guilty and compelled as a citizen about the idea of not saying anything," Ford said.
Ford then contacted Feinstein directly about the allegations and requested to remain anonymous.
But news of the allegations spread quickly through Washington and then through the media. Last week, multiple outlets reported the general contents of the letter but didn't publish Ford's name. Feinstein released a statement:
"I have received information from an individual concerning the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court," she said. "That individual strongly requested confidentiality, declined to come forward or press the matter further, and I have honored that decision. I have, however, referred the matter to federal investigative authorities."
But Ford decided to break her anonymity, citing civic duty and inaccuracies in media reports as her reasons.
"These are all the ills that I was trying to avoid," Ford told the Post. "Now I feel like my civic responsibility is outweighing my anguish and my terror about retaliation."
Kavanaugh has "categorically and unequivocally" denied the allegations, saying he "did not do this back in high school or at any time." The friend of Kavanaugh who was said to participate in the alleged incident, Mark Judge, also denied the claims.
"It never happened," he told the New York Times. "I never saw anything like what was described." Further, he said it did not match Mr. Kavanaugh's character: "It is not who he is."
Last week, Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, released a letter written by 65 women who said they knew Kavanaugh from their high-school days:
"We are women who have known Brett Kavanaugh for more than 35 years and knew him while he attended high school between 1979 and 1983. For the entire time we have known Brett Kavanaugh, he has behaved honorably and treated women with respect. We strongly believe it is important to convey this information to the Committee at this time."
In August, Ford took a polygraph test administered by a former F.B.I. agent. The results, which were provided to the Post by Ford's attorney, Debra Katz, a Washington lawyer known for taking on high-profile sexual harassment cases, reportedly indicated that Ford was being truthful about the allegations.
