Morocco, South Africa boost foreign investment figures
North Africa, Economics, 9/23/2002

Foreign investment flows to Africa almost doubled in 2001 to $17bn, mainly due to large deals in Morocco and South Africa, a UN report released on Tuesday said.

"Most of that increase is due to a few large investment deals in Morocco and South Africa," the annual United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) report said.

"For many other countries on the continent inflows fluctuated only slightly, although they were higher than in the early 1990s."

Africa attracted $9bn in 2000. The world's poorest continent ran counter to the global trend in 2001, where Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) flows fell by 51% to $735m, largely due to widespread recession in industrialized countries.

The lion's share went to Morocco, where flows rose to $2.3bn from $200m last year, mainly thanks to the sale of part of the capital of the local telecom operator Maroc-Telecom, the report said. The firm sold a 35% stake to France's Vivendi Universal.

Flows to North Africa jumped by 83% to $5.3bn.

In sub-Saharan Africa, investment flows overshot the $10bn mark for the first time ever, reaching $11.8bn. "This is largely the result of an unbundling of cross-share holdings involving London-listed Anglo American and De Beers of South Africa," the report said.

"Angola, with $240m in petroleum-related FDI, saw by far the largest jump, to more than $1.1bn, keeping its ranking as the largest recipient among African LDCs (Least Developed Countries)," the report said.

Cote d'Ivoire received $257m, while Mozambique, Uganda and Tanzania all topped $200m. Kenya, the largest economy in east and central Africa, was not listed in the report but UN officials who issued the report told reporters FDI inflows to the country remained stable at 0.2% of the continent's total inflows.

Investment flows to Africa are traced from the United States, France and the United Kingdom, the report said. More than 60 percent of US flows went into the oil sector, while UK firms were active in banking, trading and finance.

Previous Stories:
  Economic competitiveness report on Africa, Morocco ranks 5th   (6/24/2000)
  Conference on oil legislation in north Africa   (6/17/2000)
  UNCTAD: Egypt, Morocco are top African investment- attracting countries   (5/27/2000)

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