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2 New African Golden Visas: Bold Bets or Blunders? · IMI Podcasts

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Two African countries are preparing brand new golden visas and they could not be more different.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: One demands more investment than Singapore and the other still doesn't have a price tag.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: Between them stretches a continental price war.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: Learn about these two programs, whether they're a fit for you, and how the African investment migration landscape is changing for good.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: Let's start at the top of the market with the most expensive residency by investment program Africa has ever seen.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Ethiopia will begin issuing 10-year golden visas during the fiscal year that began on July 8th, and the entry ticket is$10 million.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: Investors who commit$5 million can also qualify, provided they create substantial local jobs, with the quotas to be defined in a government directive.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: On top of the investing, the card comes with a$10,000 processing fee rising to$12,500 for express handling, plus a premium home delivery option for the card itself.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: Ethiopia first unveiled this program in March.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: Until this week, though, only that fee was public, and much of the early coverage mistook the$10,000 fee for the investment requirement itself.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: Government-owned newspaper, Ethiopia Today, has now confirmed the thresholds.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: Both the Council of Ministers and the House of People's Representatives have approved the enabling proclamations, and the Immigration and Citizenship Service is finalizing an operational directive with the Ministry of Justice, along with the infrastructure to produce the physical cards, targeting a full launch before summer 2027.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: A quick note before we go further, the entrepreneurs and investors inside IMI Sovereigns, our private members community, are stacking golden visas like these and building passport portfolios diversified across the globe.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: If you're charting a similar path, the Sovereign Score inside Sovereigns benchmarks your own setup across 10 dimensions in less than a minute.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: Link and a nice discount are in the description.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: Now, officials in Addis Abba say they modeled this program on frameworks like the UAE Golden Visa.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: The comparison only goes so far though.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: The Emirati property route starts at about$545,000, as a fraction of what Ethiopia's program will demand.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: So what does$10 million buy?
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: A renewable 10-year residence card, uninterrupted status in the country, and fewer repetitive procedures.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: What it does not buy, however, is citizenship.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: The government has not announced a passport pathway tied to the visa.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: Ordinary law does allow naturalization after four years of legal residence in Ethiopia, provided you can communicate in one of the country's languages, including Americ, Oromo, Somali, Tegrinya, and AFA, earn a lawful income and demonstrate good conduct.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: But on top of the lack of structured naturalization process, Ethiopia does not recognize dual nationality.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: Naturalizing would mean renouncing your existing citizenship, and whether future regulations will create an exception for golden visa investors is unclear.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: For you whose strategy may include adding nationalities, not swapping them, that could be a deal breaker.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: There is a cheaper door into the country, by the way.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: Since 2025, foreign nationals can own residential property in Ethiopia for the first time, at a minimum of$150,000 per house paid in convertible foreign currency through Ethiopian banks.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: Because the constitution vests all land in the state, buyers own only the structure, with the land itself on a leasehold.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: That route earns a multiple entry property visa of up to five years, not the golden visa.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: So this eight-figure Ethiopian entry ticket raises an obvious question.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: What does everyone else charge?
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_00: Set against Africa's other residence and citizenship offerings, Ethiopia's threshold is an outlier by an order of magnitude.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: The Indian Ocean Island Nation of Mauritius grants a 10-year investor visa from$50,000 and permanent residence from$375,000 in real estate.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: Egypt sells citizenship outright for a single$250,000 donation.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: Namibia's residency by real estate investment starts at$316,000.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: Even the continent's pricier programs stop well short of Ethiopia's thresholds.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: Seychelles wants$1 million committed to a local business.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: Sierra Leone's Fast Track Citizenship by Investment Program costs$140,000, and Cape Verde's green card requires roughly$94,000 in real estate purchase.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: Mauritius is also preparing a golden visa of its own, approved by Cabinet in April, but not yet issuing.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: It will likely require a$1 million commitment within 12 months of arrival in one of five sectors, a tenth of Ethiopia's headline figure in exchange for a two-year renewable visa.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: The closest structural analogue to Ethiopia's new program is Mozambique's Tiered Investor Visa, which reserves its 10-year permit for investments of$5 million or more, without the job creation strings that Ethiopia attaches.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: Zoom out beyond Africa, and the price looks like even a bolder bet.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: Singapore's global investor program requires almost$8 million for its business route, and it grants permanent residency directly with a citizenship application possible after two years.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: New Zealand's Active Investor Plus visa demands about 6 million US dollars and leads to permanent residence as well.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: Ethiopia will charge more than either of them.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: For a residence card with no announced path to permanent status, that takes confidence.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: Which brings us to the second new program at the opposite end of the spectrum.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: Kenya is reviving its golden visa program.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: The country's investment promotion agency, Invest Kenya, is exploring a residency-by-investment program that would grant foreign visitors permanent residency.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: An idea first floated in 2019 that never became law.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: That original version leaned towards citizenship, but talks with the Interior Ministry went nowhere fast.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: The current revival speaks only of residency.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: John Muendua, the agency's chief executive since January 2025, calls the plan exploratory, and he is candid about how much is undecided.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: There is no investment threshold yet, no list of qualifying sectors, and no timeline.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: Because immigration policy falls outside the agency's purview, any program would also require legislation, and no bill has reached Parliament yet.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: For now, foreign investors in Kenya use the Class G investor permit, which requires a minimum$100,000 investment in an active Kenyan enterprise.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: Investors must retain that permit for seven years before applying for citizenship by registration, a route that also demands three years of continuous residence beforehand.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: A permanent residency track would spare investors the repeated renewals and annual charges that come with work permits, which is the friction the Invest Kenya Agency wants to remove.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: The timing is no accident.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: Kenya drew an estimated$3.2 billion in foreign investment in 2025, a record with inflows up almost 40% year over year.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: Governments across the continent are pairing residency rights with tax incentives to anchor mobile capital.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: And Nairobi wants a seat at that table.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: Now back to the question posed at the beginning of the video.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: Ethiopia is the bold bet, a price above Singapore's attached to a weaker reward than Singapore's, with no eventual citizenship option currently.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: Everything now depends on the pending directive, which will fix the job creation quotas for the$5 million route, the sector specific requirements and the grounds on which the government can revoke a visa.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: Once that directive and the card infrastructure are in place, and we'll be the first to report it, so subscribe so you're notified, the agency plans to begin issuing residency before July 2027.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: Whether enough investors see a ten-year residence card as worth eight figures is the open question.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: Kenya for now is neither bet nor blunder.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: What exists today is only a direction, no formal proposal, bill, or thresholds.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_00: Given that the first attempt stalled for seven years, scepticism is warranted.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: Even so, a permanent residency offer in East Africa's business hub, priced anywhere near the existing$100,000 Class G level, would instantly rank among the continent's most competitive programs.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_00: And these two are far from alone.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: Mauritius has a new golden visa approved and waiting.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: Botswana has signed an agreement with Art and Capital toward a$75,000 direct citizenship by investment program, pending legislative changes.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: A regulatory effort in Nigeria is pending.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_00: If Africa's emerging programs appeal to you but eight figures does not, check out the video on your screen next.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: We cover three emerging market African citizenships you can buy from$90,000 in Sautame and Principe, Egypt, and Sierra Leone, and how investors use them as plans B, C, and D.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: Subscribe and turn on notifications so you catch the next launch the day it happens.