An overview of industrial investment in Africa from 2016 to 2023

Using data from the Trendeo database,

we can profile different regions when it comes to investment and

jobs created since 2016

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Africa, by Rayan Benamane

The African continent, which accounts for 8% of global investment in the data we collected from 2016 to 2023, has been growing since 2020.

While the continent has seen a decline in investment in the agri-food sector, it has seen an increase in almost all other sectors.

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Chemicals was by far the sector with the highest level of investment (over 32.1 billion USD), with Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt Co.,Ltd 's USD 20 billion electric vehicle battery gigafactory project in Morocco being the most significant.

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The year 2023 was also marked by investments in the oil/gas extraction sector (USD 10 bn), electrical equipment (USD 6.9 bn), metallurgy (USD 6.3 bn) and electricity and gas (USD 6.2 bn).

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The water and waste treatment sectors are also growing strongly on the continent, thanks in particular to major investments in Morocco.

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Overall, the energy and mining sectors have accounted for over 70% of investments on the African continent over the past 8 years.

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North African countries, led by Egypt, accounted for over a third of investments in Africa over the period, particularly in manufacturing (56%) and energy (47%).

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Southern Africa (led by Mozambique and South Africa) and West Africa (led by Nigeria) follow with just over a fifth of investments each. The former concentrates a very high proportion of investment in data centers (81%), the latter in waste treatment (59%). These two regions accounted for 80% of investment in extractive activities over the period.

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East Africa (with Tanzania as the main destination) accounts for 13% of investments, and 73% of those in logistics. Central Africa accounts for 10% of continental investments.

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Africa is the continent (after Oceania) where FDI is most present as a percentage of investment (77% over 2016-2023, compared with a global average of 50%).European Union countries (with Italy, France and Germany as the main investors) account for 24% of industrial FDI received by the continent since 2016, making them the leading foreign investor in Africa.

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Europe in the broadest sense (with Norway and the UK as the main additions) accounts for 41% of industrial FDI in Africa. The United States, China, India and the United Arab Emirates account for most of the remaining foreign investment on the continent over the period.

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