A new investigative report has revealed how the 'rich' residents of the commercial city of Lagos state are currently exiting the city.
Lagos city (Photo: Jumia Travel)
Many rich Lagosians are leaving the city as taxes make it expensive to invest or thrive in the city, a new report has shown.
According to the Global Wealth Migration Review published in January, many Londoners are also leaving the city as Brexit prompts rich Europeans living in the U.K. capital to return home.
The report listed Lagos and London in the same category with Istanbul, which is also seeing net outflows of rich people.
Bloomberg reports that about 5,000 high net-worth individuals, HNWIs left the U.K. during 2017 and only about 1,000 arrived.
The report reads: “Over the past 30 years, the United Kingdom has been one of the biggest recipients of migrating HNWIs.
“However, this trend changed in 2017 when the country experienced its first major HNWI net outflow.”
The report said that rich people are opting to leave Lagos and London for Auckland and Dubai.
The report stated that losing wealthy individuals is normally a sign of trouble in the political economy of a country as rich people are often the first people to leave, unlike the middle class or the poor.
The report, however, listed cities that saw large inflows of the nouveau rich to include Auckland, Dubai, Montreal, New York, Tel Aviv and Toronto.
It also stated that rich Chinese and Indians opt for the U.S. or Canada, while Russians also choose the UK and Cyprus.
The report also listed Russia as the most “unequal” country in the world, where 24 per cent of total wealth is held by billionaires.
Japan, on the other hand, is the most equal, with only 3 percent wealth controlled by billionaires.