Market News

y Peter Egwuatu

A new report released by  Ernst and Young, EY, a global professional services firm, has indicated that Foreign Direct Investment, FDI, promoted more than 730 projects across the continent in 2022, injecting $194 billion in financing while creating 154,000 jobs.

The report also reveals that Nigeria led other West African countries in the FDI flows, while in East Africa, Kenya dominated the FDI landscape. The two countries came in third and fourth positions respectively for the largest FDI regions on the continent.

Significantly, Egypt saw a record of $107 billion in capital for its 149 FDI projects, taking the continental lead position.

The EY’s 13th Africa Attractiveness report tagged ‘A Pivot to Growth’, provides insights into the continent’s FDI, exposing that the 2022 calendar year saw a strong FDI rebound, led by renewable energy.

A notable highlight of the report shows that CleanTech became the largest FDI recipient sector in 2022, leading Africa’s FDI for the first time. While the extractive based sector FDI inflows continue to fall, FDI into the Services sector, particularly Tech and Business services-continue to rise.

In a similar vein, Egypt FDI attractiveness continues to rise in prominence as South Africa FDI inflows remain flat.

The three largest economies in Africa (Nigeria, Egypt and South Africa) are currently facing economic head winds. Zimbabwe features in the Top 10 for the first time in a decade while Ethiopia and Mozambique exit the Top 10. Nigeria also lost FDI inflows momentum.

Sharing insights on the report, Ashish Bakhshi, Senior Partner and Head of Markets, EY West Africa, believes that 2022 was the first visible sign of Africa’s return to the investment arena.

He, however, notes that much remains to be done to ensure that its investment attractiveness improves so that it can build on last year’s fortunes.