Roundtables Discussion Part I

Finance & Investment

Home to many of the world’s fastest-growing economies, a young and fast-growing population, and vast resource wealth, Africa is gaining more prominence as an investment destination for international capital. An ever growing list of potential partners - from the Americas, to Europe, and Asia - are pushing for closer ties with the continent, keen to tap into the potential the continent has in key sectors such as energy, agriculture, critical minerals, and a growing consumer market.

In principle this represents a significant opportunity to scale up urgently needed investments to help drive growth, job creation, and economic development.

But the continent also faces significant challenges to attracting the levels of capital needed to make a real difference. Some of these are long-standing problems such as a lack of infrastructure and limited integration, as well as unconducive or ineffective regulation and policies. 

These are being compounded by continued uncertainty and volatility in the global economy, as well as acute fiscal challenges faced by many of the continent’s governments, on the back of increasingly unsustainable debt levels. According to UNCTAD’s annual World Investment Report, FDI to the region has stagnated in recent years, with the latest edition noting a 50% year-on-year decline in financing deals.

Against this backdrop, the session will critically examine the challenges investors face in bridging the gap between the opportunities a changing world order presents for the deployment of more capital to the region, with the very real difficulties that must be addressed and overcome, in order to realize the investment potential of African economies.