DAR ES SALAAM: Affluent Africans are heavy media users, consuming almost five hours a day, with digital fast gaining ground on television.

Nanzala Mwaura, director of client relations at Ipsos SSA, used the findings of a survey by the research organisation – which covered 3.4m affluents in South Africa, Kenya, Uganda, Cameroon, Nigeria, Ghana and Morocco – to profile a typical African Affluent for an audience at the All Africa Media Research Conference currently taking place in Dar es Salaam.

They spend just over two hours a day watching television, The MediaOnline reported, while the internet occupies around one and a half hours and print, in the form of newspapers and magazines, about one hour.

The penetration of international television was highest in Uganda and lowest in South Africa.

"Affluent lives and lifestyles have become intertwined with media in general and digital media in particular," Mwaura explained.

Almost all (98%) of this group owned a smartphone and a PC or laptop, while six in ten (62%) owned a tablet; the same proportion (60%) owned all three devices.

Social media has proved a real draw, with 94% of African Affluents having visited a site in the past 30 days.

Mwaura went on to describe African Affluents as "clever, connected, shopaholics".

Ipsos's research found that 88% of them were prepared to pay extra for quality and 90% of them preferred to buy well-known brands.

Most were armed with credit cards (80%) to facilitate their shopping, and among these one third possessed a gold or platinum card.

Luxury brands hoping to tap into this market, however, may have to play a long game. BusinessDay recently reported that Diamond Walk, a new upmarket mall in Johannesburg, often had more security guards than shoppers and quoted a wealth manager as saying brands might have to sustain losses for up to ten years.

Separate research has detailed the cities where the wealthiest Africans live, with the highest concentration found in Johannesburg, home to 23,400 millionaires.

Lagos had less than half that number (9,100), followed by Nairobi (6,200), Luanda (4,900) and Accra (2,250).

Data sourced from The MediaOnline; BusinessDay Live, AFK Insider; additional content by Warc staff