Africa’s FDI fell 16% to $40 billion in 2020, with a 5% rebound expected in 2021.

FDI peaked at $83 billion in 2021, then fell to $45 billion in 2022.

European investors—led by UK, France, and the Netherlands—hold the largest FDI share.

Private equity reached $7.7 billion across 404 deals in 2022; VC grew 10x in five years.

Renewable energy investment fell 35% to $2.6 billion in 2021, just 0.6% of the global total.

G7, EU, and US mobilize infrastructure finance: G7 $600 billion, EU €300 billion, US Build Back Better World.

South Africa received $40.889 billion FDI in 2022; Mozambique $5.102 billion; Nigeria $4.844 billion.

Egypt attracted $11 billion in 2022, ranking first in North Africa.

North Africa’s FDI fell 5% to $9.3 billion in 2021, while Morocco rose 52% to $2.2 billion.

Rwanda secured $1.6 billion in 2022, led by manufacturing, finance, and tourism; China invested $182.4 million and India $151 million.

UK led Kenya’s FDI in 2022 at 17.5%, followed by South Africa, Mauritius, and the Netherlands.

Energy, construction, and extractives totaled $165 billion, highlighting infrastructure and resource priorities.

UAE and Masdar plan up to $14.5 billion by 2030–2035 to deliver 10 GW of clean power for 100 million Africans.

DP World has invested $1.7 billion in African logistics and plans another $1 billion.

British International Investment plans $60 billion over five years for renewables, digital infrastructure, and women‑owned businesses.

Eni, BP, and Apache plan $12.6 billion for Egypt’s energy sector.

China pledged $10 billion in investments, $300 billion in African imports, and 800,000 local jobs over three years.

South Africa’s Biovac partnered with Pfizer on technology transfer and received over $54 million foreign investment.

Kenya and the United States agreed a Strategic Trade and Investment Partnership to deepen trade and investment.

The EU’s €150 billion Africa investment package targets sustainable infrastructure, digital, energy, and health projects.

Africa’s FDI fell 16% to $40 billion in 2020, with a 5% rebound expected in 2021.

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Content: Global investors waiting to pour in money in Africa to firewall China

By IANS | Published: August 2, 2021 02:09 PM2021-08-02T14:09:05+5:302021-08-02T14:25:34+5:30

New Delhi, Aug 2: After a tepid inflow of foreign direct investments (FDI) into Africa in 2020 amid the ...

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New Delhi, Aug 2: After a tepid inflow of foreign direct investments (FDI) into Africa in 2020 amid the Covid-19, investors are once again warming up to the continent. According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), FDI flows into Africa declined by 16 per cent in 2020 to $40 billion, from $47 billion in 2019.

China, the primary investor in the continent, has also slowed down its investments into the continent leaving an opportunity for other investors.

While the UNCTAD projected FDI inflow into Africa to grow this year, it said that the slow vaccine roll-out programme is a cause for concern. According to UNCTAD, FDI to the continent is projected to grow by only 5 per cent in 2021. But analysts said Africa as an investment destination has led to "an unprecedented curiosity" among other countries, which are now aggressively looking to mute China's dominance in the continent.

"Africa is critical in the new geopolitical and geo-economic contours. The continent, with its vast natural resources, offers a ready growth platform," an analyst told India Narrative.

According to a study published by Brookings Institution last week, Africa is home to 17 per cent of the world population. However, by 2050, it will have 26 per cent of the global population 2.53 billion people. "If Africa is not successfully integrated into the global economy, there could be a major threat to global prosperity and stability," the study said, adding that by 2050, the continent will be home to an estimated $16.12 trillion of combined consumer and business spending.

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) – the mega trade could give a push to intra-continental investment.

Touted as one of the biggest trade deals in the world, the AfCTA aims to create a single market comprising 1.3 billion people with a combined GDP of about $3.4 trillion.

Meanwhile, the US may have woken up late in recognising the potential of Africa but is making all attempts to make up for the lost time.

The Group of Seven or G7 has already decided to support US President Joe Biden's proposal of carving out a mega infrastructure plan under the "Build Back Better World" (B3W) initiative, expected to bring in transparency and sustainability. Besides, the initiative will be carried out only in consultation with local communities.

The G7 in its meeting in June also announced that it will increase its support to the Indo Pacific and Africa. "We resolve to collaborate with partners around the world, including in the Indo-Pacific and Africa, to actively promote these shared values for the good of all," said the statement.

India too has pressed the pedal on investments in the region. Sources said that the still-born Asia Africa Growth Corridor—the mega infrastructure project that was launched in 2017 to connect Asia and Africa must be revived.

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace noted that Chinese financiers committed $153 billion to African public sector borrowers between 2000 and 2019. "After rapid growth in the 2000s, annual lending commitments to Africa peaked in 2013, the year the BRI was launched. By 2019, though, new Chinese loan commitments amounted to only $7 billion to the continent, down 30 percent from $9.9 billion in 2018," it said.

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FDI peaked at $83 billion in 2021, then fell to $45 billion in 2022.

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It has reached $11 billion.
UN highlights doubling of foreign direct investment in Egypt
The United Nations Trade and Development Board (UNCTAD) said in its annual report on foreign direct investment flows for the year 2022, on Wednesday in Geneva, that Egypt witnessed an increase in foreign direct investment more than doubled to $11 billion as a result of increased cross-border M & A sales.
Investment flows to Africa fell to $45 billion in 2022 from a record $80 billion in 2021 and accounted for 3.5 percent of global foreign direct investment, the report said, adding that international project financing deals targeting Africa showed a 47 percent drop in value.
The report pointed out that the number of announcements of new projects increased by 39% to 766, and that six of the 15 largest new investment mega projects (those worth more than $10 billion) announced in 2022 were in Africa, stressing that Egypt witnessed an increase in foreign direct investment more than doubled to $11 billion as a result of increased cross-border M & A sales.
The number of new projects has more than doubled to 161, and the value of international project financing transactions has increased by two-thirds to $24 billion.
FDI inflows have risen over the past five years in four of the continent ’ s regional economic groupings, with FDI in the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) growing by 14% to $22 billion, and inflows also rising in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) (quadrupled to $10 billion) and the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WEMU) (doubled to $5.2 billion). East African Community (up 9% to $3.8 billion).
According to the report, the largest increase in 2022 was in new field projects announced in energy and gas supply (to $120 billion from $24 billion in 2021), and the value of projects in construction and extractive industries rose to $24 billion and $21 billion, respectively, while the information and communication sector recorded the largest number of projects.
European investors remain by far the largest owners of FDI in Africa, led by the United Kingdom ($60 billion), France ($54 billion) and the Netherlands ($54 billion).

What was the total FDI inflow to Africa in 2022 and how did it compare to 2021?

$45 billion, which was down from $80 billion in 2021

European investors—led by UK, France, and the Netherlands—hold the largest FDI share.

Which countries are actively investing in Africa besides China?

Private equity reached $7.7 billion across 404 deals in 2022; VC grew 10x in five years.

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African private equity activity surges to 5-year high in 2022

Private equity and venture capital investments in Africa soared 66% year over year in 2022 to $7.70 billion, the highest aggregate value for the region in the last five years, S&P Global Market Intelligence data shows.

The massive jump was mainly due to the proposed acquisition of hospital operator Mediclinic International PLC, which is valued at more than $5 billion.

Transaction volume, which includes M&A and rounds of funding, has steadily climbed in the region since 2018 and reached 404 deals in 2022. The continent saw a full-year increase in transaction volume even as activity slowed sharply in the final quarter of the year.

Investments with private equity involvement totaled $370 million in the fourth quarter of 2022, down 71% from $1.28 billion in the prior-year period. Deal volume declined 43% over the same time frame.

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Attractive valuations, young demographics

African technology companies offer appealing entry valuations and high growth rates of about 100% annually compared to peers in the U.S., according to Fope Adelowo, principal at Helios Investment Partners LLP, which invests in telecommunications, media and financial services across the region.

"The growth outlook for those sectors are not only quite positive, but they are also, in many ways, noncyclical," Adelowo said. "When you look at the global environment, whether that's people using more digital methods to make payments ... consumers consuming more data, we're really just in the early stages."

African economies are also buoyed by young populations that are "increasingly entrepreneurial and driven by technology-led innovation," Adelowo said. Money moved into venture capital in the region has grown about 10x in the last five years, largely due to that young population, which is "very digitally engaged." That is helping drive innovation to address inefficiencies in many sectors in Africa, Adelowo added.

Health, tech sectors drawing interest

Once the multibillion-dollar deal for Mediclinic closes, that transaction will become the largest private equity capital deployment in Africa in the last three years. Mediclinic's buyers include Remgro Ltd. and SAS Shipping Agencies Services SÀRL. The deal is expected to close in the first quarter.

The technology sector, particularly digital infrastructure, is also attracting investor interest, Adelowo said. There is an imbalance in the supply of data centers, for example, compared to growth expected from consumers that need more data and are spending more time online.

Africa's financial services and fintech sectors are also expected to continue to grow as many African countries increasingly move to a cashless society, Adelowo added.

What trends are emerging for African startups in 2022?

Renewable energy investment fell 35% to $2.6 billion in 2021, just 0.6% of the global total.

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Content: Renewable energy investment at low and alarming level in Africa
SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (AFP) - Investments in renewables in 2021 are at an “alarming ” 11-year low in Africa, despite the continent ’ s vast potential, a Bloomberg NEF report said Wednesday at the Sharm el-Sheikh Climate Conference (COP27).
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According to the report, only $2.6 billion was invested in wind, solar, geothermal and other renewable energy projects in 2021, the lowest in 11 years.
Investments in renewables worldwide rose 9% year-on-year to their highest level last year, but fell 35% in Africa, which accounts for only 0.6% of the $434 billion invested in renewables worldwide.
In Africa, where electricity production is largely based on polluting and expensive fossil energy sources, the decline is taking place despite Africa ’ s exceptional natural resources, growing demand for electricity and an improved political environment.
Africa has a clear solar potential, but contributes to 1.3% of the global production capacity of this energy source.
The report also highlighted the high concentration of investments in some countries, notably South Africa, Egypt, Kenya and Morocco, which alone account for almost three-quarters of the total amount invested since 2010.
UN Special Envoy for Climate Action Michael Bloomberg said: “Investment in clean energy sources in Africa is at an alarming low level. ”
“To change this situation, we need new levels of collaboration to identify and finance viable clean energy projects from the private sector with government support to turn Africa ’ s capacity to be a global clean energy leader into reality. ”
The report ’ s authors identified “bottlenecks ” limiting the spread of these energy sources in Africa, such as a lack of access to opportunities in the sector by local investors and a lack of planning.
The report suggested drawing on the experiences of other countries that have overcome these obstacles, citing in particular the solicitation of bids in Brazil and the efforts of the National Development Bank in Mexico.

G7, EU, and US mobilize infrastructure finance: G7 $600 billion, EU €300 billion, US Build Back Better World.

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Content: Biden launches ‘ Rebuilding a Better World ’ initiative to counter China ’ s ‘ Belt and Road ’ initiative
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Biden launches ‘ Rebuilding a Better World ’ initiative to counter China ’ s Belt and Road Initiative
2021-11-05 15: 02
U.S. President Joe Biden used the margins of the 26th United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP26) to push for a greener, more collaborative global infrastructure initiative.
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U.S. President Joe Biden used the margins of the 26th United Nations Conference on Climate Change (COP26) to push for a greener, more collaborative global infrastructure initiative.
He said the initiative would set a “sustainable path to net zero emissions by 2050 ” and provide an alternative to China ’ s vast Belt and Road initiative.
Biden returned to Washington from Europe on Wednesday.
Speaking at a roundtable in Glasgow, Scotland, Biden said: “The Build Back Better Initiative (B3W), the Clean Green Initiative in Great Britain, the Global Gateway and the Clean Green Initiative are all part of a joint effort among G7 partners to bring high-quality, sustainable infrastructure. ”
Biden and more than 100 world leaders signed a climate agreement to help keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Biden launched his “Rebuilding a Better World ” (B3W) during the G7 summit in June with the goal of creating“ a values-driven, high-standard, and transparent infrastructure partnership ” to help finance projects in developing countries.
This is clearly an alternative to Beijing ’ s trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
China ’ s international development project has funded infrastructure projects in Asia, Africa and Latin America, as well as in Europe.
“Countries have an urgent need for infrastructure development — infrastructure that, when you start, from the moment you shovel the earth, makes fighting climate change a priority and starts green economic growth, ” Biden said.
The outpost of this initiative in the United States has already begun.
This week, US officials, led by US Deputy National Security Adviser Daleep Singh, visited Ghana and Senegal to explore infrastructure projects.
The trip follows a similar visit by U.S. officials to Latin America in September, where Mr. Singh led an interagency delegation to Colombia, Ecuador and Panama.
The United States is also planning several visits to different regions.
Biden ’ s “Build Back Better ” initiative at home has met with resistance within his Democratic Party.
His proposals have been severely curtailed in recent weeks.
The Biden administration, however, insisted that Congress was impeding the passage of the trillions of dollars in infrastructure and social spending that the American public wanted.
“Each of the four pillars of B3W — climate, health, numbers, and gender — is an area where the United States and its G7 partners have a comparative advantage, ” said Jonathan E. Hillman, senior research fellow on economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“If the United States and partners can mobilize investment from pension funds, life insurers and other institutional investors, B3W has the potential to be much larger than China ’ s BRI, ” Hillman said.
He added that while it takes time to prepare viable projects, such as the Blue Dot Network is a mechanism for the U.S. State Department to certify foundational projects that meet strong international quality standards.
The hope, Hillman said, is that as the record of successful projects grows, more countries will be drawn to U.S. initiatives.
If Washington can coordinate with other development projects of like-minded partners, its influence is likely to expand exponentially.
"Japan, a member of the Group of Seven, is in fact the largest foreign direct investment (FDI) country in the region, with extensive experience and networks across Southeast Asia," Mr Meyers said.
The key, Hillman says, is to provide an aspirational vision, compelling benefits, and pragmatic incentives.
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Which countries are actively investing in Africa besides China?

South Africa received $40.889 billion FDI in 2022; Mozambique $5.102 billion; Nigeria $4.844 billion.

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Content: « Money » monitors the forecasts of economic analysts for foreign investment flows in the current year
A number of them predicted it would reach $10 billion.
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Wael Ziadeh: The Russian-Ukrainian war is an opportunity for the Egyptian stock exchange to attract more capital
Esraa Ahmed: Clean energy, infrastructure and digital financial services are the most attractive sectors
Hani Geneina: Companies should be encouraged to reinvest their profits instead of transferring them to parent entities abroad
Naaman Khaled: Most of the money will come from Gulf markets
The Egyptian government aims to increase foreign direct investment flows, especially the Gulf, in the local market in the coming period, in light of the repercussions of the Russian-Ukrainian war on the global and local economies, and a number of analysts and macroeconomic experts estimated the value of these investments to reach $10 billion, driven by various factors, including the decline in the stock prices of companies on the stock exchange, and the exchange rate of the pound against the dollar.
The latest report issued by UNCTAD in June on the volume of foreign investment flows in 15 African countries last year showed that Egypt ranked second in the list, recording the volume of flows about 5.122 billion dollars compared to 5.852 billion in 2020 compared to 9.010 billion in 2019.
South Africa came first last year with a 1,235% jump in investment inflows of $40.889 billion compared to $3.062 billion in 2020 and $5.125 billion in 2019.
Wael Ziadeh, founder and CEO of Zela Capital, said that the Russian-Ukrainian war had negatively affected foreign direct investment flows in the world, while inter-state assistance had increased to counter the negative consequences of the war.
He explained to Al-Mal that these negative effects included the exit of investment flows from some emerging countries, which led to the impact of their trade balance, especially as their imports of food and oil more than their exports, for example Turkey and many European countries, as well as Sri Lanka.
On the other hand, the war represents a positive area for these countries, especially in activating the stock market sector, he said, adding that in this context, the Egyptian Exchange has opportunities to attract more foreign investments in the coming period.
He predicted that Egypt will take no more than six months to recover its trade balance once the war is over, as the prices of petroleum products and food will fall rapidly, as they rose rapidly after the outbreak of the war.
The objectives of the Egyptian government published in July 2021 in the second and final review report of the Credit Standby Arrangement Program signed with the International Monetary Fund, amounting to about $5.4 billion, indicated that the percentage of net foreign direct investments of GDP will rise to 2.5% in the current fiscal year compared to 2% in the last fiscal year, adding that it recorded 1.4% in the fiscal year 2021 / 2020, 2% in 2019 and 2.6% in 2019. / 2018.
These targets pointed out that the proportion of net foreign direct investment will jump to 3% of GDP in the fiscal year 2025 / 2024 compared to 2.9% in 2023 / 2024.
The government also expected in the report to increase the volume of foreign direct investment flows in the local market to about 11.7 billion in the current fiscal year against 8.6 billion dollars in the last fiscal year 2022 / 2021 to rise to 14.9 billion in the next fiscal year (2023 / 2024) and 16.5 billion in 2025 / 2024.
According to the Central Bank of Egypt ’ s forecasts issued in its statistical bulletin for May, the proportion of net foreign direct investment in GDP declined to about 1.3% in the fiscal year 2020 / 2021 compared to 2% in the fiscal year 2019 / 2020, adding that it was 2.7% in the fiscal year 2018 / 2019 and 3.1% in the year 2017 / 2018.
Economist Hani Geneina predicted that the value of net foreign direct investments in the local market will exceed 10 billion dollars in the coming period, due to several different factors, including the decline in the prices of shares of companies in the stock exchange and the exchange rate of the pound against the dollar.
However, Egypt was the second largest recipient of foreign direct investment in the African continent, he said, adding that recent pledges from Gulf countries to invest about $22 billion in various sectors will boost foreign direct investment in the future.
The number of new green projects in Egypt has more than tripled to $5.6 billion, according to the UNCTAD report, pointing out that for example, the UAE real estate company Reportage announced a real estate project worth $1.5 billion.
According to the report, the volume of foreign direct investment flows to North Africa declined by 5% to $9.3 billion last year.
Geneina told Al-Mal that the flows of foreign direct investments to the markets are divided into three types, the first is the acquisition of one company on another by more than 10%, pointing out that this investment happened last fiscal year, such as the acquisition of the UAE Holding “ADQ ” on several Egyptian companies, pointing out the importance of this type of investment, but it is not very useful in the list of foreign investments.
This type of rapid investment is encouraged by the decline in both stock prices on the stock exchange and the exchange rate of the pound against the dollar, as well as the recent government stimulus measures that included the implementation of the state ownership document.
The document of state ownership announced by the government in mid-June revealed the most prominent sectors that will witness the stabilization or reduction of government investments (while allowing the participation of the private sector), a number of activities in the transport, education, mining, real estate, electricity, telecommunications and sports sectors.
Geneina said that the second type of flows is the reinvestment of a foreign company present in the market for its profits again, pointing out that this type is classified in the balance of payments as foreign direct investments.
He added that the most prominent local sectors that will go to this type of investment is oil and gas, due to the high value of its profits achieved last fiscal year, and will therefore reinvest its large financial surpluses during the current fiscal year.
He pointed out that the third type of investment is the most difficult, which is the establishment of a new company or project from the beginning, and the employment of new workers, pointing out that for example, Dana Gas announced that it will expand its operations implemented in the local market.
This area is likely to witness an increase during the current fiscal year, especially in the oil and gas sectors and related sectors, namely petrochemicals and fertilizers, especially by Gulf investments in light of the features announced recently by the government, namely the state ownership document, the gold license, as well as the large financial surpluses they have, which motivates them to invest in the local market.
In mid-May, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly announced a number of concessions on the industrial sector, most notably the issuance of the golden license for some projects, pointing out that it will be granted once and include three areas as a start, namely green hydrogen, electric car manufacturing and infrastructure, seawater desalination projects and renewable energy.
Geneina stressed the importance of the government encouraging foreign companies to reinvest their profits in the local market instead of transferring them to parent companies abroad by providing incentives to urge them to take this step.
According to the latest UNCTAD report, Mozambique ranked third in the list of foreign investment flows to 15 African countries last year, and its inflows rose by 68% to $5.102 billion compared to $3.035 billion in 2020, while it recorded 2.212 billion in 2019.
Nigeria ranked fourth on the list, attracting inflows of 4.844 billion over the past year, an increase of 103 percent from the previous year, the data added, adding that it recorded 2.385 billion in 2020 and 2.305 billion in 2019.
Ethiopia followed in fifth place, and foreign direct investment inflows increased last year by 79% to $4.259 billion compared to $2.381 billion in 2020.
In the sixth place came « Congo » with the volume of flows of $3.691 billion, a decline of 8% from its value in 2020, and recorded 4.016 billion dollars, followed by Ghana in the seventh place in the list and increased flows by 39% to reach 2.614 billion dollars during 2021 compared to 1.876 billion in 2020.
According to data from the UNCTAD list, foreign direct investment flows in Senegal jumped by 21% to 2.232 billion against 1.846 billion dollars in the previous comparison period.
According to the report, the value of flows to Morocco increased by 52% last year to $2.153 billion, and a major international financing deal was announced there, a $20 billion construction project for a 3,800km transmission line to the UK with a capacity of 3.6 gigawatts, sponsored by English company Xlinks.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo ranked 10th on the list, with investments up 14% to $1.870 billion compared to $1.647 billion in 2020.
Gabon came in eleventh place, with direct investment flows falling by 5% last year to record 1.635 billion dollars compared to 1.717 billion in 2020, followed by Uganda, with flows rising by 31% to 1.142 billion dollars compared to 874 million in 2020.
Tanzania ranked 13th, with foreign investment up 35 percent in 2021 to $922 million compared to $685 million in 2020.
According to the bulletin, investment flows in Algeria decreased by 24% last year to $870 million compared to $1.143 million in 2020, pointing to the decline of investments in Tunisia to $660 million compared to $652 million in 2020 to be ranked 15th.
Esraa Ahmed, a macro-economic analyst at the investment bank “Ahly Pharos ”, agrees with Geneina ’ s opinion as she expects the volume of net foreign direct investment in Egypt to rise to about $10 billion during the current fiscal year (2022 / 2023), up from levels that will not exceed $7 billion in the fiscal year ending 2021 / 2022.
She added that this rise is driven by the Gulf investment flows that have been announced recently, and the acquisition deals that we see are witnessing activity during the current period.
There are other factors that may prevent net foreign direct investment from rising to larger numbers in the near future due to the continuation of the war in Ukraine and its repercussions on the global economy.
According to Ahmed, these factors are the economic situation of the European Union, which is an important partner for Egypt in terms of trade and investment, in addition to the general reluctance globally to risk starting new projects, and the prevailing outlook for emerging markets and the risks of their currencies.
On the sectors that may witness foreign inflows during the coming period, she said that the most prominent of them are clean energy, new infrastructure driven by the expansion of the state in this field, in addition to digital financial services, and some branches of manufacturing industries.
For his part, Numan Khalid, a macro-economic analyst at Arqaam Capital, said that the current circumstances in the world prevent the possibility of predicting the volume of foreign direct investment flows in the local market during the coming period.
He added that most of the investments come from the Gulf market, especially from Saudi Arabia and the UAE, pointing out that these two countries have benefited greatly from the recent increases in oil prices, and thus have a great financial solvency through which to invest in surrounding countries, especially in Egypt, which is one of their target markets.
He pointed out that health, hotels, real estate and the financial sector will witness an increase in the volume of investment flows to them during the coming period.
During his participation in the Qatar Economic Forum last June, the Minister of Finance, Mohamed Maait, looked forward to increasing the volume of Gulf investments with the transformation of their deposits in Egypt into real investments that benefit from the promising development opportunities available in various fields.

Egypt attracted $11 billion in 2022, ranking first in North Africa.

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Content: Tuesday 27 February 2024
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Parliamentary: Egypt has become the most important investment destination in Africa and the Arab world
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MP Ibrahim El-Deeb, a member of the House of Representatives, said that Egypt is one of the most important investment destinations in the African continent and Arab countries, especially after following various ways that would attract foreign investment and employ it in vital sectors in favor of economic growth, and the recent period is the best evidence of this.
El-Deeb pointed out that Egypt ranked first in North Africa in attracting foreign direct investment according to the United Nations Trade and Development Report 2020, where it succeeded alone in acquiring 15% of the total investments flowing to the continent of Africa according to a report issued by the United Nations for Trade and Development on global investment in 2021.
"The International Monetary Fund has already announced that foreign direct investments will register continuous growth in Egypt, where it is expected to reach 16.5 billion dollars in the fiscal year 2025 – 2024, and what has been achieved on the ground during the last few hours confirms that Egypt is on the right track in the file of direct investment."
He pointed out that foreign direct investment (FDI) is one of the main engines of economic growth in the countries and contributes to the expansion of the investor base in the country, as well as to solve the problem of unemployment through the creation of new jobs and the introduction of new advanced technology for the state, and to learn about modern methods of management, organization and marketing, which leads to the acquisition of national workers. and more experience.

What trends are emerging for African startups in 2022?

Which African countries are driving the venture capital ecosystem?

North Africa’s FDI fell 5% to $9.3 billion in 2021, while Morocco rose 52% to $2.2 billion.

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Content: FDI flows to North Africa down 5% in 2021
Foreign direct investment to North Africa fell 5 percent to $9.3 billion for the whole of 2021, according to a report on “Investing in the World ” released by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) on June 9, 2022.
These investments, towards Tunisia, improved slightly from $652 million in 2020 to $660 million in 2021.
The same investment to Morocco increased by 52 percent to 2.2 billion dollars in 2021, compared with a 12 percent drop to 1.5 billion dollars in Egypt.
Despite the decline in these investments in Egypt, it remains the second country to benefit from the inflow of foreign direct investment in Africa.
According to the same report, the flow of foreign direct investment in Africa reached a record level of $83 billion for the whole of 2021, more than double the investment achieved for the whole of 2020.
Despite this significant growth, the flow of investment to Africa in 2021 represented only 5.2 percent of the global total, compared to 4.1 percent in 2020.
Most African countries saw a slight increase in foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2021.
These investments developed in South, East and West Africa, while they maintained their previous levels in Central Africa, while declining in North Africa.
Europeans remain the most important investors in Africa, led by investors from the United Kingdom ($65 billion) and France ($60 billion).
Increased investments in renewable energy
Despite the overall positive trend of foreign direct investment towards Africa, the announcement of new projects remained weak at $39 billion and shows only a weak recovery compared to $32 billion recorded in 2020 and less than $77 billion recorded in 2019.
In parallel, the number of international projects in the field of renewable energies in Africa increased to an estimated 71 projects, almost double the 36 projects completed in 2011.
Among these projects is a $20 billion project that aims to export wind energy to the UK from Morocco.
By laying 3,800 km of submarine cables.

Rwanda secured $1.6 billion in 2022, led by manufacturing, finance, and tourism; China invested $182.4 million and India $151 million.

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China and India dominate investment in Rwanda despite wooing Europe

Monday May 15 2023

The Chinese medical team donates a consignment of supplies to Rwanda on January 2022. Data shows China in 2021 and 2022 topped the number of registered foreign investments in Rwanda. PHOTO | XINHUA via AFP

By BERNA NAMATA

China and India remain leading investors in the Rwandan economy despite the country investing millions of dollars in investment and tourism promotion in Western Europe.

Figures by the Rwanda Development Board (RDB), the country’s investment and tourism promotion agency, show that in 2022, the country attracted investments worth $1.6 billion. Of this, $182.4 million or 11.2 percent represented in 49 projects came from China.

India came second with $151 million in investment portfolio or 9.2 percent, with 36 projects.

In 2021, China still topped the number of registered investments at $357.7 million or 9.5 percent of the $3.74 billion total investments registered at the time.

The second investor was Kenya, which had invested $92.6 million or 2.5 percent.

In 2022, Kenya registered investments worth $35.8 million, just 2.2 percent of the entire investment value.

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Also read: Ethiopia topples Uganda, Tanzania for Kenya investments abroad

Manufacturing, financial services and insurance activities accounted for 45.6 percent of total registered investments in 2022, and are expected to create 38.5 percent of jobs generated from investments, the report says.

It also shows that for the first time, local investors are leading private investment in the country, accounting for approximately $504.8 million or 33.1 percent of the total investment, with 123 projects.

A multimillion-dollar private investment company owned by the ruling Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF), Crystal Ventures Ltd, is among leading local investors.

The EastAfrican has learned that last year the company invested in machinery for the expansion of the construction firm Construct Ltd.

“We are pleased that our efforts to attract transformative investments in various sectors – such as manufacturing, real estate, finance and entertainment – were successful, and the diversity of these investments indicates a healthy and dynamic econom,” Clare Akamanzi, the RDB chief executive, said in the annual report.

In 2021, Crystal Ventures Ltd was also among the leading investors with a key project – setting up a milk powder plant with the capacity to process 500,000 litres per day, according to the RDB 2021 report.

Wooing Europe

Although Asia remains a top investor in Rwanda, Kigali is focused on attracting investment and tourists from Europe.

And despite criticism, Rwanda has maintained its deals with football clubs are paying off, without giving definite figures linked to the sponsorship.

Read: AKAMANZI: Sportswashing? No. Rwandans benefit from the business of sport

Recently, President Paul Kagame reaffirmed that the deal with Arsenal Football Club, which plays in the English Premier League, is paying off.

“Imagine this season if we (Arsenal) become the champions, I will be rushing to the bank to collect some money. We are getting more, by a big factor,” he said responding to a question from a journalist during a press briefing onFebruary 27.

This week, RDB announced it had renewed its ‘Visit Rwanda’ partnership with French football club Paris Saint-Germain after three years to showcase the country as a top tourism and investment destination.

“There is more to the partnership between Visit Rwanda and Paris Saint-Germain than just promoting Rwanda as a destination. It aims to create synergies in culture, fashion, the arts and football development, which is very important to us.

Paris Saint-Germain provides us with an amazing platform to present the very best of Rwanda to millions of fans around the world,” Michaella Rugwizangoga, RDB’s chief tourism officer, said in a statement announcing the renewal of the partnership on May 10.

The amount paid for the deal has not been disclosed.

The deal came after a similar multi-millionone, initially estimated at $41.4 million, signed in 2018 with English football club Arsenal, which was also renewed in 2021 to run until 2025 at a cost of approximately $13.8 million a year, according to soccer website Football.London.

RDB figures show tourism generated $445 million in revenue, up from $164 million in 2021, representing an increase of 171.3 percent.

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What trends are emerging for African startups in 2022?

Which countries are actively investing in Africa besides China?

Which sectors received the most foreign investment?

UK led Kenya’s FDI in 2022 at 17.5%, followed by South Africa, Mauritius, and the Netherlands.

Title:

Content: Kenyan firms double investments in the region on market optimism

The number of investments that local firms made abroad nearly doubled in 2022, most of which were in neighbouring countries, reflecting local industry’s optimism in the expanded East African Community (EAC)

According to the latest official data, Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) made by Kenyan companies in other countries grew 75 per cent to Sh329.2 billion in 2022, compared to Sh187.7 billion in 2021.

The Foreign Investment Survey Report showed Safaricom’s investment in Ethiopia made the country the top investment destination for Kenyan firms in 2022.

Ethiopia received Sh74 billion as FDI from Kenya as the telco set its operation there.

Before Safaricom started setting up in Ethiopia in 2021 and pumped in Sh60 billion, the country used to get dismal investments from Kenya, at Sh647 million in 2020.

FDI to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) grew 200 per cent, with Kenyan firms pumping Sh52.7 billion in 2022 up from Sh17.8 billion in 2021.

This followed the hype that came with the country becoming a full-fledged member of EAC.

Foreign assets

In 2022, DR Congo was the fourth largest recipient of investments from Kenya after Ethiopia, Tanzania and Uganda. It had previously ranked lower with countries such as the US, Rwanda, Mauritius and South Africa being ahead.

The stock of foreign assets increased by 30.4 per cent to Sh452.9 billion at the end of 2021, and further by 13.7 per cent to Sh514.9 billion at the end of 2022.

These were mainly in the form of foreign direct investment and other investments.

“FDI nearly doubled from Sh187.7 billion at the end of 2020 to Sh329.2 billion at the end of 2022 and accounted for 63.9 per cent of the total foreign assets at the end of 2022. The increase was mainly on account of equity and investment fund shares,” said the Foreign Investment Survey Report by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics.

“Other Investment abroad increased from Sh158 billion at the end of 2020 to Sh182.7 billion at the end of 2021, and further to Sh183.9 billion at the end of 2022. The increase was driven by currency and deposits, which accounted for 69 per cent of the total other investment abroad.”

Following the admission of DR Congo to EAC, Kenyan firms trooped to the country expecting to tap into the ease of doing business in the country for firms of other EAC members.

They were counting on the country’s huge population and operations around its rich mineral resources.

Some of them, including banks, have reported seeing a growth in earnings and say their DR Congo operations could rival their earnings from the Kenyan parent companies.

The KNBS report also showed that investments from other countries to Kenya grew 17.9 per cent over the period, largely driven by FDI which increased 11.6 per cent to Sh 2.06 trillion from Sh1.07 trillion in 2020.

“The stock of foreign liabilities increased by 17.9 per cent from Sh1.748  trillion at the end of 2020 to Sh2.06 trillion at the end of 2022,” said the report.

“The increase was attributed to FDI which increased by 11.6 per cent from Sh1.069 trillion billion at the end of 2020 to Sh1.193.6 billion at the end of 2022.

The stock of Other Investment liabilities increased from Sh645.9 billion in 2020 to Sh808 billion in 2022.”

High taxes

The major sources of FDI for Kenya include the United Kingdom, which accounted for 17.5 per cent of the investments to Kenya in 2022, South Africa (11.3 per cent), Mauritius (8.3 per cent) and the Netherlands (7.5 per cent).

Investors who responded to the KNBS survey noted that the cost of power, high taxes and access to credit are among the factors that are a drag for business in the country.

They however noted there was improvement in internet reliability, transport and infrastructure and ease of business registration

“On the contrary, 22.2 per cent of the respondents indicated that the cost of electricity had deteriorated. This was closely followed by the cost of credit and tax policy measures at  17.8 per cent and 16.5 per cent, respectively,” said the survey.

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Energy, construction, and extractives totaled $165 billion, highlighting infrastructure and resource priorities.

UAE and Masdar plan up to $14.5 billion by 2030–2035 to deliver 10 GW of clean power for 100 million Africans.

Title:

Content: Global News
The world today - in the footsteps of the United Arab Emirates.
“Renewable energy ” is growing in Africa.
You are now following the news of Emirati footsteps.
The hope of "renewable energy" rebounds in Africa from the news section of the world and now we leave you with full details
Mohammed - Abu Dhabi on Wednesday 20 September 2023 05: 22 PM - 2021 saw record levels of global investment in renewable energy globally, amounting to $434 billion.
Of that amount, only 0.6 percent went to Africa, according to a report by RES4Africa.
These "disappointing" figures were followed by a "glimmer of hope" for the continent, through steps announced by the UAE, which has emerged as one of the largest investors in Africa.
Emirati Steps to Africa
At the recent African Climate Summit held in Nairobi, Kenya, Sultan Al Jaber, UAE Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and President-designate of COP28, announced $4.5 billion in funding for clean energy projects across the continent.
Masdar, a global leader in clean energy and one of the world ’ s largest clean energy investors, has announced a new initiative in partnership with Africa50, the pan-African infrastructure investment platform, to invest up to $10 billion in clean energy projects targeting 10 gigawatts of clean energy by 2030.
The announcements follow an initiative launched by the UAE last year, known as Union 7, to provide clean energy to 100 million people across Africa by 2035.
Experts say all these steps represent a "dose of hope" for Africa's renewable energy prospects.
Failed Westerners.
Al Jaber has criticized Western advanced economies for failing to deliver on their renewable energy investment pledges to the developing world, highlighting in particular the imbalance between Africa and the rest of the world with regard to green investment.
Aubrey Haroubi, a member of the Atlantic Council and an adviser to African markets, said: “African countries feel let down by the West on climate finance.
“The UAE is filling this vacuum in a meaningful way.
This shows that they are taking climate investment in Africa seriously, and this is an important signal ahead of COP28.
The UAE will host the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP-28).
According to official data, climate finance in the developing world will be at the top of the agenda.
In a speech in Egypt during the annual meetings of the African Development Bank in May, Al-Jaber pointed out that “the 54 countries in Africa are the least among the countries in the world in causing climate change, yet they suffer the worst consequences. ”
Al-Jaber also pointed out that current climate finance to Africa is not enough at all, stressing that the continent needs more than ten times the size of current funding for climate projects.
“Addressing the financial gap is a top priority for the COP28 presidency and my team, ” Al Jaber said.
The UAE is a major investor in Africa
Besides renewable energy, the UAE has emerged as a major investor in Africa over the past decade.
According to a study by White and Case, the UAE has emerged as the fourth largest global investor in Africa after China, the United States and Europe.
From 2012 to 2022, the UAE recorded nearly $60 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) in the continent, according to FDI markets and the study.
Intermediates between emerging and Western countries
Forbes noted that the UAE ’ s high levels of investment in Africa and across the emerging world have enabled it to play the role of mediator in what is becoming a controversial debate among “emerging ” countries, sometimes at odds with the developed West, over what it sees as“ climate hypocrisy. ”
The emerging countries ’ argument suggests that advanced economies in Europe and the United States have built their growth on fossil fuels and now have the resources and capacity to move towards net zero emissions in the future, but developing countries that have not yet experienced the same growth could be excluded from future development if fossil fuels are too limited.
To partially alleviate these concerns, the world ’ s advanced economies have pledged $100 billion a year in climate finance by 2020 for the developing world.
This pledge was first made in Copenhagen during COP15.
Critics say that amount is far from enough to meet the challenge.
Unfair change.
Many specialists point out that the continent will continue to need fossil fuels for a long time in order to achieve its development goals.
Gyude Moore, a senior member of the Center for Global Development and former minister of public works in Liberia, acknowledges the scale of the climate problem, but says insisting on Africa ’ s shift from fossil fuels to renewables is “unrealistic and unfair. ”
Rahul Tongea, a member of the Brookings Institution, said poor countries are already low emitters, and it would be unfair to immediately enforce a ban on fossil fuels.
“Unfortunately, the rush to zero has been interpreted as a relentless ban on public subsidies for new fossil fuel energy.
This is both unfair and unworkable. ”
A bridge between Africa and the world
Amid this debate, Aubrey Haroubi noted that “the UAE can play an important role as a bridge between developing countries and advanced economies.
They have credibility in both worlds.
He added: “The world is looking for countries that can provide a third way.
The UAE can play this role because of its close ties with Western capitals and its growing ties across Africa and emerging markets. ”
The UAE is a major investor in clean energy at home and around the world, and the UAE hosts two of the world ’ s top ten solar parks.
Paolo Gomes, president of Orango Africa Investment Corporation, said: “The UAE announcement is an important step in the right direction and sets the right course for the upcoming COP28 summit.
However, Gomes points out that a major aspect of Africa ’ s energy problem is due to the mismanagement of utility companies, which must be reformed to address energy poverty across the continent, where some 600 million Africans lack access to electricity.
With the right infrastructure in place, the IEA predicts an ambitious scenario to increase solar and wind power in Africa eightfold by 2030.
We hope that we have succeeded in conveying the full details of the news of Emirati steps..
“Renewable energy ” is growing in Africa.
In God ’ s care and protection.
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You may also read.

DP World has invested $1.7 billion in African logistics and plans another $1 billion.

Title:

Content: ...
...
...
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DUBAI
DP World enters $1.7 billion partnership in Africa
CDC to allocate $320 million to joint investment platform
Posted in: Last Updated:
DP World and British development finance group CDC said on Tuesday they had agreed to jointly invest in Africa ’ s transport and logistics infrastructure for a total of $1.72 billion.
The two companies said the investments in ports, container depots, commercial complexes and other infrastructure will be through an investment platform recently established by DP with the British group.
Dubai government-owned DP World said it had contributed to the platform with minority stakes in three ports it operates in Africa and planned to invest $1 billion within the next few years.
DP ports are located in Ain Sokhna, Egypt, Dakar, Senegal, and Berbera in the breakaway Somaliland region of Somalia.
CDC said it had allocated $320 million to the investment platform, through which it expects to inject an additional $400 million over the next few years.

What trends are emerging for African startups in 2022?

British International Investment plans $60 billion over five years for renewables, digital infrastructure, and women‑owned businesses.

Title:

Content: British International Investment Plc (BII) aims to invest $60 billion in Africa over the coming five years, Bloomberg reported on July 27th.

The investments will be made in several fields including renewable power and digital infrastructure, along with supporting women-owned businesses.

BII will pay attention to the powerhouse markets in Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, and Egypt, with the investments being focused on the private sector.

The support plan, which is a part of a global program worth $10 billion, covers a $76 million contribution to a $500 million fund being arranged by Old Mutual Ltd’s African Infrastructure Investment Managers.

For his part, BII’s CEO Nick O’Donohoe said in an interview that his fully-owned company by the UK has been a major investor in power, particularly renewable energy, in Africa over the past three or four years.

Copyright © 2022 Arab Finance Brokerage Company All rights reserved. Provided by SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndigate.info).

Eni, BP, and Apache plan $12.6 billion for Egypt’s energy sector.

Title:

Content: Wednesday, 06 September 2023 09: 39 GMT
Three international oil companies plan to invest $12.6 billion in Egypt
(MENAFN- Al-BoNews) Three international energy companies announced the injection of new investments worth $12.6 billion in Egypt over a period of one to four years, heralding the return of foreign investments in the sector to record a net inflow after witnessing a net exit of investments worth $4.7 billion during the period between July 2020 and March 2023.
Italy ’ s Eni said it plans to invest $7.7 billion in Egypt over the next four years, but gave no further details.
In its annual report for last year, Eni said it plans to increase production from Algeria and Egypt, raising the volume of its exports to Europe, which is seeking to dispense with oil and gas from Russia.
Egypt ’ s ENI reserves are 167 million barrels of liquids and 3.881 billion cubic feet of gas.
By the end of 2022, the number of oil wells operated by (ENI) reached 1253 wells, including 533.5 wells exclusive, while the gas fields reached 145 wells, including 44.7 wells, in 55 concessions.
The operator of the Zohr field said it had invested about $6 billion in the field by the end of 2022, including $373.9 million last year alone, and that its reserves from the field amount to about 650 million barrels of equivalent.
Apache said it plans to invest $1.4 billion in Egypt next year to explore and drill wells.
By the end of June, the company ’ s total assets in Egypt amounted to $3.365 billion, compared to $3.107 billion, and the company ’ s oil and gas production increased by 226.9 million barrels equivalent per day.
BP plans to invest $3.5 billion in research, exploration and development in the country over the next three years, in addition to drilling four new wells during the last quarter of this year, according to a statement from the Ministry of Petroleum.
The CEO of the British company, Bernard Looney, said that these investments are likely to double if new discoveries are made, and that the company is moving forward to develop its investments in Egypt and expand the development of natural gas resources.
According to the company ’ s annual report, it produces about 60% of Egyptian gas by the end of 2022, with a production rate of 1.272 billion cubic feet, other than 28 thousand barrels per day of crude oil.
The sector has not seen a net inflow since the fiscal year 2019-2020, when the net inflow at the time amounted to $1.1 billion, but it received foreign investments worth $13 billion since June 2013 until the end of March, including $12.8 billion net inflow after the liberalization of the exchange rate in the fiscal year 2016-2017 and 2018-2019.
Although the sector ’ s investments have not yet recovered since the pandemic, and the subsequent economic crisis; because of the war that led to a currency crisis and restricted the ability of companies to access foreign currencies, but the first quarter of this year saw a net decline in the flow of foreign investment abroad to about $67.5 million, compared to $565 million in the same quarter last year.
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Which African countries are driving the venture capital ecosystem?

China pledged $10 billion in investments, $300 billion in African imports, and 800,000 local jobs over three years.

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Content: Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

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Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

Fifth Estate

Chinese FM Wang Yi’s visit cements Sino-Africa relations

-Wang Yi will be in Kenya, Eritrea and Comoros from Jan 4-7.
-It’s an annual tradition for Chinese FM to visit Africa at the start of the year.
-The visit cements China-Africa relations.

Following in the tradition of Chinese foreign ministers starting every new year with a visit to Africa, State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi will visit Eritrea, Kenya and the Comoros from January 4 to 7, 2022 upon invitation by the respective hosts. This will be the 32nd annual visit to the continent.

Making the announcement on December 2, 2021 Zhao Lijian, spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry noted that this customary visit demonstrates the great importance China attaches to its traditional friendship with Africa and the development of China-Africa relations.

For Sino-Africa experts and watchers alike, this is one of the most important annual highlights and sets the tone of how the partners will react to geopolitical issues going forward. It is also a barometer of how the two have reacted to external pressure bent on putting a spanner in their socio-economic and even political works.

That China and Africa have formed a close bond in a long running relationship spanning more than five decades is not in doubt. Currently, China has established diplomatic relations with 53 African countries, in addition to 160 pairings with sister provinces or cities between the two partners. This shows the depth of cooperation and closeness that has progressively developed over time.

China has established 61 Confucius Institutes and 48 Confucius Classrooms in Africa. Language is a crucial channel in creating mutual understanding, which informs the establishment of these basic language and cultural centers. It is also added value for Africans who, with the addition of Mandarin to their lingua franca and foreign second languages, are becoming truly global citizens through multilingualism. But it is expected that with Sino-Africa relations becoming widespread in Africa, Mandarin will replace most foreign languages in the continent in a span of less than 50 years.

China’s COVID-19 assistance to Africa is well documented. Recently, President Xi Jinping announced that China will provide another one billion doses of COVID vaccines to Africa, including 600 million doses as a donation, to help the countries achieve the goal set by the African Union of vaccinating 60 percent of the African population by 2022. Africa will also benefit immensely from China’s COVID-19 assistance to developing countries bilaterally, and even through multilateral channels like the COVAX Facility.

During the eighth ministerial conference of the Forum for China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) held in Dakar, Senegal in November, 2021 China pledged to permit $300 billion worth ofAfrican imports in the next three years. It also promised $10 billion in trade finance to support African exports. Chinese businesses will also invest at least $10 billion in Africa over the next three years, and offer $10 billion worth of credit facilities to African financial institutions.

In a great gesture of genuine friendship, China said it is ready to channel $10 billion to African countries from China’s share of the International Monetary Fund’s new allocation of special drawing rights. To cap it all on this front, Chinese companies in Africa plan to create not less than 800,000 local jobs.

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The year 2021 marked the 65th anniversary of the start of diplomatic relations between China and African countries. Almost by design, Agenda 2063’s flagship projects reflect FOCAC’s pillars. These are wide ranging sectors in the areas of infrastructure, science and technology, education as well as arts and culture. Specifically, Sino-Africa cooperation has experienced either the conception, emergence or realization of some major initiatives, some of these together with other African partners.

These include the ten major cooperation programs envisioned by President Xi during the FOCAC Johannesburg Summit in December 2015 – agricultural modernization, infrastructure, finance, green development, trade and investment facilitation, poverty reduction, public health, cultural and people-to-people exchanges, and peace and security.

Over the past two decades, Chinese overseas Foreign Direct Investment to Africa has grown, from $75 million in 2003 to $ 5.4 billion in 2018. Through the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China has

also expanded its sphere of influence in Africa, and specifically through investment in infrastructure development such as industrial parks, railway, ports, and roads among others.

During the launch of a report in Nairobi titled “Shared Prosperity: Tracking the Belt and Road Initiative in Kenya, 2018-2021” held in November, President and Chief Executive of the Africa Policy Institute, Prof Peter Kagwanja, observed that the centuries-old reservoir of collective wisdom and philosophy carries the values of cooperation and solidarity between China and Africa as two old civilizations with a long history of friendly interactions and mutual cooperation.

Today, FOCAC and BRI form the twin-engines of the SinoAfrica architecture now propelling Africa’s development. China has committed at least $200 billion to lift Africa from poverty and underdevelopment. After BRI was launched, China has extended a $120 billion dollar lifeline, $60 billion in 2015 and another $60 billion in 2018. This is the largest bailout in human history, and the first ever by a developing nation like China,” observed Prof Kagwanja.

As noted during FOCAC, China has become an indispensable partner in Africa’s development, and the forum has now become the most important accelerator for Sino-Africa cooperation. Africa supports and will actively participate in the Global Development Initiative and the Initiative on Partnership for Africa’s Development, both of which are Chinese led initiatives.Further, Africa expects greater support from China for herindustrialisation and fight against the pandemic. Africa stands ready to contribute to high-quality Belt and Road cooperation for people’s well-being and common prosperity.

[Stephen Ndegwa is a Nairobi-based communication expert, lecturer-scholar at the United States International University-Africa, author and international affairs columnist]

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What is the impact of Chinese companies on jobs in Africa?

South Africa’s Biovac partnered with Pfizer on technology transfer and received over $54 million foreign investment.

Title:

Content: African Vaccines - Local Manufacturers Are Struggling to Access the Market - What Must Change

analysis

Two recent developments in South Africa have underscored the opportunities - and challenges - facing vaccine production on the continent.

One was the visit by the World Health Organisation Director General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus to take stock of Africa's mRNA vaccine hub. The hub was launched in mid-2021 in a bid to make the latest vaccine technology more readily available to developing countries.

The other development highlighted the main problem that African countries continue to have in developing vaccine production capabilities: markets for their products. On this point, the South African government announced that it had awarded a tender for the pneumococcal vaccine, Prevenar/PCV13, to the local agent of Serum Institute of India. The other product, Hexaxim, is now the subject of a re-tender process. Other winning bidders were GSK (Belgium) and Sanofi (France).

There were high expectations that the tender for Prevenar/PCV13 would go to Biovac. This is a local company that's developed the capacity to manufacture the vaccine in South Africa through a technology transfer partnership with Pfizer.

The tender outcome is truly paradoxical given that South Africa has expressed a strong commitment to local production of medicines. The request for bids to supply vaccines for the national programme that included Prevenar/PCV13 went as far as to make a reference to special consideration for locally produced products.

The decision suggests that there's a fragmentation of goals and objectives within the governmental agencies in fostering pharmaceutical production in South Africa. This kind of disconnect can significantly discourage future investments and partnerships, and wreak havoc with expansion plans.

The WHO visit, and the Biovac decision, point to two big challenges: how to support local production of vaccines while meeting national health objectives. And how to create markets for new producers within Africa through national and regional procurement policies.

Market access and local production

The tender decision raises important questions about local production and how its inextricably linked to market access.

Since 2021, vaccine production initiatives in Africa have mostly focused on financing and partnership building, leaving out the central question of market access for products made in African countries.

Market access is crucial for local production of vaccines.

First, competitive production in the vaccine sector depends on scale. The larger the company's production volumes, the cheaper the price. But to achieve scale, local companies need market access.

Second, market access is key for the survival of new entrants. It enables them to cover their working capital and helps with funds for reinvestment in the business for expansion.

But the current procurement systems for vaccines in the region does not leave much room for African companies. Forty out of 54 countries on the continent rely on vaccines procured by Gavi, the global alliance that provides vaccines to eligible low and middle income countries. Gavi-procured vaccines account for almost 85% of all vaccines procured in the region. This leaves little room for supply through other channels where African companies have to compete with all other global companies.

This is problematic. To address the issue the African Union has has called on Gavi to procure 30% of the vaccines from production facilities on the continent.. This is under discussion but it still won't be enough.

If the aim is to enable local vaccine production in Africa, we have to ensure that local producers have access to their national markets. Such market access must be facilitated speedily through national procurement policies.

Procurement

Procurement policies can potentially promote three broad goals:

But balancing these three goals is not easy. Focusing just on the lowest prices may in fact, lead to the elimination of local companies, driving them out of business.

This is why countries that have succeeded in building local vaccine manufacturing had done so by, among other things:

  • restricting foreign competition when three or more local companies can produce a product. This happened in Bangladesh;
  • procuring from local companies as much as possible, or waiting for local companies to develop capacity to introduce products, as has been the case in Indonesia and Brazil;
  • offering preference to local companies in the national procurement process. This is a route that Russia has taken.

A reliance on preferential procurement by local companies can sometimes have negative consequences. It can lead to inefficiencies such as higher product prices, which become the norm due to low competition, with a negative impact on public health objectives.

But these can be avoided by designing procurement policies that support local companies more broadly, with a focus on promoting competition. Prices can also be pegged to any select international reference price to ensure that premiums for local production to accommodate the local suppliers are not too high. Price incentives can also be restricted to limited periods to ensure a shift to competitive production.

What Africa needs

Biovac was set up as a public private partnership in 2003. It has faced many challenges. These include uncertain periods as the exclusive supplier to South Africa's Ministry of Health, and changes in product development trajectories to suit the national protocol choices.

Despite these difficulties, the company has been resilient. Today, it has a workforce of 450, most of whom are highly qualified and skilled scientists. It has over R1 billion (over US$54 million) in foreign direct investments through its partnerships with foreign companies.

But the current basis of all manufacturing activity at the company is the local manufacture of Prevenar/PCV13 and the six-in-one vaccine, Hexaxim. This basis needs to be preserved and nurtured, to enable the company to expand, and to allow the emergence of a vibrant vaccine production sector in the country that can supply to South Africa and the region.

Cutting off the company from supplying to its own local market isn't beneficial for Biovac, and not a good decision for South Africa given the investment that's been made in developing capacity in this sector.

A number of lessons stand out from Biovac's experience.

First, local companies are better off with certainty on access to domestic markets. This can help them plan and expand their production effectively from the start. Tenders offer a good starting point to address this.

Second, product selection in national programmes would do well to take into account local products in the pipeline.

Third, tenders can balance public health with local production if they are structured to promote cost gains in some segments through external supplies that can allow for a small price premium for local companies in other vaccine categories. This would help local companies to stabilise themselves in Africa, which are not equipped to absorb the financial risks of losing out on national tenders.

Africa has come a long way, in the post-COVID era, in boosting the morale around local production investment among local and foreign companies. But countries on the continent still need to carefully consider incentives for local companies, given the harsh international competition and the lack of inroads to markets both in the region and outside for African companies.

It is critically important to work with Gavi to enable procurement from African companies. But it's equally important for self-procuring countries to commit to - and support - local production capacity building efforts. Without this commitment from African governments, the Africa vaccine manufacturing "project" is under serious threat.

Padmashree Gehl Sampath, Global Access in Action Program, Berkman Klein Center, Harvard University

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What trends are emerging for African startups in 2022?

Which countries are actively investing in Africa besides China?

Kenya and the United States agreed a Strategic Trade and Investment Partnership to deepen trade and investment.

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Content: Columnists

New opportunity to enhance US-East African trade, investment relations

Like the rest of the world, African economies are today faced with headwinds. This has elevated the need to enhance trade and investment with key partners such as the US to weather such crises, catalyze economic growth and safeguard livelihoods.

According to the United Nations' World Economic Situation and Prospects report, economic growth in Africa weakened to 3.3 percent in 2023. This was attributed to the global economic slowdown, subdued investment and falling exports.

However, there is optimism over the East African region’s prospects. The African Development Bank projects that the region's growth will stand at 5.1 per cent in 2024 and 5.7 per cent in 2025, ahead of the rest of the continent.

A significant proportion of this is expected to be driven by trade and investment activity. Trade and investment can spur robust economic activity in the region, unlocking opportunities for more people directly in the form of jobs and indirectly by developing value chains.

This also has the potential to drive inclusive development and reduce reliance on development assistance.

As the region looks to enhance trade and investment relationships with the rest of the world, significant attention needs to be paid to the US market considering its role as a strategic trading partner.

Over the years, trade and investment between the US and the East African region has steadily grown.

In 2022, the value of imports from the US, including machinery, wheat and aircraft into the region stood at $1.1 billion. Exports, mainly apparel, macadamia nuts, coffee, tea, and titanium, totalled $1.3 billion.

This activity is expected to get a further boost from Kenya’s ongoing negotiations with the US, known as the Strategic Trade and Investment Partnership.

It is the first-of-its-kind bilateral trade agreement between the US and a sub-Saharan African country and aims to increase investment, promote sustainable and inclusive economic growth, benefit workers, consumers, and businesses, and support African regional economic integration.

There has been continued interest by US companies in establishing or expanding their business presence and engagement within the East African region.

In recent years, this has seen the establishment of strategic investments in Kenya including the recent Amazon Web Services development centre and the NBA Africa office in Kenya.

There are even more opportunities to deepen the region’s two-way trade relations with the US. Currently, Africa lags behind other regions, such as Europe and Asia, in terms of trade and investment activity. More opportunities can be unlocked through closer commercial collaboration as well as sustained efforts to enhance the business climate and progressive reforms to address persistent barriers to trade and investment.

This makes the upcoming 4th regional AmCham Business Summit (on April 24 and 25, 2024) a great opportunity for strengthening bilateral trade and investment between the US and the region.

Bringing together business and government delegations from the U.S., Kenya, and across the East African region, the Summit, set to happen on April 24 and 25, 2024, will explore the vast trade and investment opportunities that lie ahead. On the agenda are issues critical for the region’s economic development, including shaping the future of U.S. - East Africa trade and investment, climate action, digital transformation, universal health coverage and sustainable finance.

It will build on the huge successes from last year’s summit that saw deals forged, connections struck and investments worth US$700 million announced.

Such platforms for interaction by businesses from across the region and the U.S. as well as senior government officials are key in promoting and enhancing trade and investments. Spurring robust economic activity in the region bears huge benefits for individuals, businesses, and the region, including inclusive growth and resilience to external shocks.

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The EU’s €150 billion Africa investment package targets sustainable infrastructure, digital, energy, and health projects.

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Can The Caribbean and Latin America Really Trust China As A Business Partner?

On December 7, a few days after the third China-Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) Forum, the Chinese Foreign Ministry released the China-CELAC Joint Action Plan for 2022-2024. It laid out Beijing’s plans to expand cooperation over a range of areas, including defense, finance, trade, public health, and cultural exchanges.

On that same day, the regional Latin American news website Infobae reported that the Ecuadorian government was suing Chinese company Sinohydro for shoddy work on the Coca Codo Sinclair dam, which has seriously harmed the Ecuadorian environment and economy. Constructed in 2016, the dam has over 7,000 cracks, is causing erosion along the Coca River, and is running well below its promised capacity. The erosion has also forced two of Ecuador’s most important gas pipelines to shut down, potentially threatening Ecuador’s ability to fulfill its export contracts. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is now working with the Ecuadorian government to mitigate the effects of the erosion.

The juxtaposition of these two events highlights the conundrum facing Latin American and Caribbean governments: Their aspirations of leveraging Chinese resources to finance national development and other objectives versus the very real risks that engaging with Chinese entities can bring.

Ecuador’s Coca Codo Sinclair dam is just one example of a string of failed, problematic, or stalled Chinese infrastructure projects throughout the region. Is there something about PRC-funded or managed projects that leads to a disproportionate number of problems? There are three elements which contribute to an elevated risk of problems that can be highlighted by an in-depth examination of the Coca Codo Sinclair case: A lack of due diligence by the partner contracting the Chinese project; corruption; and disregard for indigenous rights and environmental protection.

Lack of Due Diligence

In 1992, the Ecuadorian government commissioned two feasibility studies on the Coca Codo Sinclair dam. One of those studies pointed out that the project could adversely affect the Coca River water supply, which could in turn cause “regressive erosion,” eating away at the river bed and weakening land upstream. When the Chinese company Sinohydro began constructing the dam in 2010, it either did not follow through on due diligence to conduct a vulnerability or risk study, or it simply ignored the risks identified in the previous study.

In 2015, Ecuador’s comptroller found more than 7,000 cracks in the dam’s distributors, indicating that the work or materials used by Sinohydro were likely of poor quality. Similarly, due to Sinohydro’s failure to address the hydrological risks from the project identified by the earlier analysis, in 2020, the flow of the Coca River was severely impacted, causing the iconic San Rafael waterfall to dry up and both the Trans-Ecuadorian Oil Pipeline System and the Heavy Crude Oil Pipeline to rupture. These issues all resulted in environmental damage and temporarily affected Ecuador’s oil supply. As a consequence, as noted previously, in 2021, Ecuador decided to sue Sinohydro and bring the case to international arbitration.

Elsewhere in Ecuador, numerous other hydroelectric projects have faced problems. These have resulted in the Ecuadorian government fining China Water and Electric for non-compliance with contract commitments on the Toachi-Pilaton dam, the removal of China National Electric Equipment Corporation from the Quijos hydroelectric project for failure to complete the promised work, the cancellation of a project in Chone by the Chinese firm Tesijiu, and the deaths of three workers in a flooding accident in the Delsitsanisagua project, among others.

In Bolivia, the government has over the years rescinded the contracts of numerous Chinese companies for non-performance on infrastructure projects, including kicking Beijing Urban off Santa Cruz’s Viru Viru airport, and rescinding China Railway Road and CAMC Engineering’s contracts to build a railroad line from Montero to Bulo Bulo, among other incidents.

Over in the Caribbean, the sudden termination of Trinidad and Tobago’s $71.7 million project between China Gezhouba Group International Engineering Company and the Housing Development Corporation in 2019 highlighted a lack of transparency in the award of the contract and “overly generous concessions to the Chinese company,” according to the Caribbean Investigative Journalism Network. In Guyana, the minister of public works denied a request by China Harbor Engineering Company to extend the time of completion of an upgrade of the Cheddi Jagan International Airport. This $150 million project remains incomplete after over a decade after it began due to various concerns over workmanship and other technical issues, although it is expected to be 65-70 percent complete by the end of the year.

These examples show a pattern of Chinese companies either not adequately conducting due diligence before a project commences or failing to follow through once the project begins.

Corruption and Improper Chinese Influence

In 2018, the New York Times detailed the fact that almost all of the Ecuadorian government officials involved in the Coca Codo Sinclair dam project are now in jail or being investigated for bribery. While those bribery charges largely have to do with receiving funds from Brazilian construction company Odebrecht, there was also a secretly recorded tape that was made public that suggested former Ecuadorian Vice President Jorge Glas had received bribes from the Chinese.

In Venezuela, there have been countless questionable, non-transparent projects in which it is not clear where the money went, but the projects were left uncompleted. One of the most glaring examples was a rice production facility contracted to China’s CAMC Engineering. In September 2018, an Andorran court found that the Chinese had paid at least $100 million in bribes to Venezuelan officials to secure the project, which ultimately never was completed or produced any rice.

Perhaps the most high-profile case is the “Nicaragua Canal,” a $100 billion project involving highly questionable non-transparent relationships between Nicaragua’s ruling Ortega family, including the president’s son Laureano, and Chinese telecommunication billionaire Wang Jing. In 2014, leveraging control of the Nicaraguan Congress by the Ortegas’ ruling Sandinista party, Wang Jing’s company HKND obtained broad authorization to construct a $100 billion canal across the country. The project ultimately vanished in 2016 after failing to attract outside investors, although in November 2021, just before Nicaragua’s decision to establish diplomatic relations with the PRC, Wang Jing curiously re-appeared in public to advocate the continuation of the project.

While these are the most overt examples of how Chinese companies use bribes and other improper influence to secure projects on terms to their advantage, there are other subtle ways. After Panama established diplomatic relations with the PRC in 2017, the administration of then-President Juan Carlos Varela negotiated agreements with China directly through the president’s office, prompting accusations of corruption.

In the Bahamas, local developer Sarkis Izmirlian has a pending $2.25 billion lawsuit against China Construction Americas for running that project into bankruptcy, leading him to ultimately lose control of the project. The lawsuit includes accusations that the firm submitted hundreds of millions of dollars in sham bills, intentionally understaffing the project and using it to train inexperienced workers for other construction projects in the region. Such corrupt activity isn’t just happening in the Western Hemisphere; around the world, 35 percent of China’s Belt and Road projects have encountered implementation problems, including corruption scandals, labor violations, environmental hazards, and public protests.

Disregard for the Community, Indigenous Peoples, and the Environment

Chinese projects across the region have repeatedly sparked protests by indigenous groups, environmentalists, and communities affected by their operations, for their manner of proceeding with respect to concerns over as the environment, land and water rights, and associated issues.

In 2018, the International Federation of Human Rights released a report finding that Chinese company BGP Bolivia broke its promise to the Tacana people of Bolivia, destroying a forest of chestnut trees, crucial to the local economy, and forcing animals to migrate. The collapse of a poorly constructed retaining wall in a Bolivian mining operation by the Chinese firm Jungie led to the injury of 18 workers and the contamination of the local community with metal tailings. In 2019, the Amazonian Community of the Cóndor Mirador Mountain Range in Ecuador demonstrated against a copper mining project by the Chinese company Tongguan, accusing the firm of violating national mining laws by not adequately consulting them about the project, and later forcibly evicting them from their land.

In Peru, local protests over the impact of the Rio Blanco mine, developed by the Chinese company Zijin near Piura, ultimately brought the project to a standstill. Also in Peru, in the Las Bambas mine, repeated protests by the Chumbivilcas community at the entrance to the site finally obliged the Chinese operator Minmetals to cease production. In Argentina, operations by China Metallurgical Corporation (CMC) in the Campana Mahuida mine have been frozen since 2009 due to resistance over the impact of the operation on the local community and environment. In Brazil, Chinese companies’ soy cultivation, an extremely important commodity for China’s own food security, in biodiverse areas is threatening the ecosystem and contributing to deforestation.

Can the Region Really Trust China?

Admittedly, the Chinese government and Chinese companies are learning from past failures in the region and adapting their business practices, even if not fundamentally altering their behaviors. For instance, Margaret Myers of the Inter-American Dialogue has written extensively about how Chinese companies are “Going Local,” building hermanamiento – sister city relationships – with provincial and municipal governments, leveraging existing local Chinese diaspora communities, and relying less on policy bank loans and more on public-private partnerships to finance projects in the region.

But the persistent problems in Chinese funded or managed projects begs the question: How can Latin American and Caribbean countries trust China as a business partner? How does one do business with companies that all too often, if not closely supervised, don’t do adequate due diligence, engage in corruption, and don’t respect indigenous rights or the environment? How can regional governments trust companies that are connected in one way or another to an authoritarian regime that, just this month, was accused of hacking and spying on 29 countries, 17 of them in the region: Argentina, Barbados, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, the United States and Venezuela? With Chinese companies’ problematic track record, how can regional governments trust them as they expand their footprint in areas essential to national security, such as the electrical grid and telecommunications?

Of course, it isn’t feasible for Latin American and Caribbean countries to cut business ties with Chinese companies altogether, given the importance of the PRC as a purchaser of their commodities, and an increasingly important source of investment and credit for their countries. However, there are new ways for governments to further scrutinize possible Chinese projects, and to take advantage of alternatives provided by democratic partners.

Viable Alternatives

First, local governments can do more to leverage the resources available from the U.S. to strengthen their ability to engage with the Chinese in an effective, transparent way. This will allow regional governments to better leverage the potential of Chinese investments and projects, while mitigating the associated risks. For example, as mentioned in the beginning of this article, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is currently working with the Ecuadorian government to assess the environmental impact of the Coca Codo Sinclair dam and help draw up a plan to mitigate those impacts. USACE is providing technical support to Brazil on water management; with the Panama Canal Authority on consulting and technical advisory services for the Water Projects Program for a key waterway; with the Dominican Republic to expand and further develop the Manzanillo port; and with Honduras to discuss the design of a Flood Risk Management Plan for the Sula Valley. Any country’s ministry of public works can request assistance from USACE to conduct an adequate feasibility, vulnerability, and risk assessment before large infrastructure projects get underway.

Second, regional governments increasingly have alternatives to PRC-funded projects, involving greater transparency, safeguards by corporate and government practices against corruption, and strong corporate social responsibility track records in dealing with local communities, laws, and the environment. Representatives of the  Biden administration recently visited Colombia, Ecuador, and Panama to explore private investment opportunities as part of the Build Back Better World (B3W). This initiative, supported by the U.S. Development Finance Corporation, focuses on strengthening infrastructure in the areas of climate, health and health security, digital connectivity, and gender equity and equality. The European Union also recently announced Global Gateway, which mobilizes 300 billion euros for sustainable investments in digital, climate and energy, transport, health, education and research. Both B3W and Global Gateway aspire to support projects that uphold the highest standards of transparency and anticorruption, financial sustainability, labor protections, and environmental preservation.

These tools and alternatives, offered by long standing democratic partners, will enable regional governments to allow projects that support economic growth in their countries without compromising their moral or environmental standards. And if regional governments still decide to work with potential Chinese bidders, they can hold those companies to high standards. It’s what the people of the region need, and deserve.

The views expressed in the article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the United States government.

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Leland Lazarus

Leland Lazarus serves as the special assistant and speechwriter to the Combatant Commander of U.S. Southern Command, General Laura Richardson. He previously worked as a U.S. Foreign Service Officer in China and the Caribbean. Before joining the U.S. government, he was an associate producer at China Central Television, and taught English Language as a Fulbright scholar in Panama.

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Evan Ellis

Evan Ellis is a research professor of Latin American Studies at the U.S. Army War College Strategic Studies Institute. His research focuses on Latin America’s relationships with China and other non-Western Hemisphere actors.

SOURCE: The Diplomat

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Which countries are actively investing in Africa besides China?