Foreign Investment in Africa to Hit $80 Billion in 2014

Foreign investment in African economies will hit a record $80 billion in 2014, as business leaders in developed economies put the recession behind them and Chinese and others from emerging markets continue to show a strong interest in African assets, a report said Monday.

The U.S., the U.K. and France still lead the foray. The three countries combined were holding the biggest stock in Africa investments in 2012 -when the latest data is available for- totaling $178.2 billion. The so-called Brics countries -Brazil, Russia India, China and South Africa- collectively held investments worth $67.7 billion of which $27.7 billion were Chinese.

The in-depth survey was compiled by the African Development Bank, the United Nations Development Program and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development -a rich-country think tank- and launched in Kigali Monday at the kick-off of the African Development Bank annual meetings.

Foreign investor interest remains fixed on a handful of African nations, however. Last year, “the top six recipients, representing one third of the continent’s population, received the same amount of foreign direct investment as the remaining 48 countries together,” the report said. The top destinations were the continent’s two largest economies, South Africa and Nigeria.

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