understanding land investment deals in africa - Oakland Institute

4. CASE STUDIESThere was a large influx of foreign investment inSouth Sudan following the signing of CPA in 2005.The first business sectors to start generating profitswere telecommunications and construction. As theinterim period progressed, additional investmentbegan to materialize in the hotel and banking sectors.Conventional wisdom held that these sectors, togetherwith the already active petroleum sector, were themajor forms of foreign direct investment (FDI) duringthe early years of the interim period. However, as arecent study shows, there was also a surge in largescaleland-based investment after the signing of theCPA in 2005. 70 These investments in industrial farms,plantation forestry, agrofuel projects, carbon creditschemes and ecotourism projects were largely initiatedunder the radar. Companies moved in fast to securelarge concessions and land leases in some of the mostfertile and water-rich regions of the country. For the mostpart, however, they held off investing large amounts ofmoney into developing the property, preferring to waituntil the political uncertainty of the interim period hadpassed. As a result, although large areas of land weresought or secured by private actors—more than eightpercent of South Sudan’s total land area accordingto the study—there is relatively little evidence ofinvestment activity on the ground.Defunct agro-industrial complex in Mangala which the Madhvani Group is hoping to revitalizeThe Oakland Institute understanding land investment deals in africa: south sudan | 19