course

Top 15 destination countries by FDI projects (2015)
+11.1%
300
270
42.5% 40.1%
-57.1%
28 12 6.1% 4.3%
+0.9%
107 108
11.2% 11.2%
+29.6%
North America
54 70 15.6% 8.4%
+2.8%
142 146 15.3% 12.2%
+9.5%
Africa
116 127 0.6% 0.8%
+60.0%
142 146 0.6% 0.8%
Latin America and the Caribbean
Number of FDI projects in 2014
% share of capital investment (2015)
Number of FDI projects in 2015
% share of jobs created by FDI (2015)
Change in FDI projects (2015 vs. 2014)
Source: fDi Markets, EY analysis
In 2015, Western Europe (WE) investors created 300 FDI projects
in Africa, an increase of 11.1% over the previous year. This is
a marked turnaround from 2014, when FDI projects from WE
dropped 18.4% to 270.
With a 45.3% jump in FDI projects, the UK regained its position as
the second largest investor in the continent, supplanting South
Africa, where slowing economic growth posed a challenge. The
more notable trend was in capital investment, with year-onyear
growth of 92.5%. UK investors were particularly active in
services-oriented sectors, including business services (31.2% of
favorite destination for UK FDI projects, securing 28.6% of the
total, followed by Kenya (20.8%).
primary destination, French investors ramped up activity in
Ghana, where projects increased to seven in 2015, from zero in
2014. This is interesting, considering that French companies are
traditionally inclined to invest in Francophone countries. 39
Italy proved to be an active investor in 2015. It became one of the
15-largest investors into Africa with FDI projects doubling from
8 in 2014 to 16 in 2015. Interestingly, Italy was also the largest
source of capital investment in Africa during the year. This was
largely on account of a single US$6b project by Eni SpA, which
40 South
Africa was the primary target for Italian FDI projects, followed by
Morocco and Egypt. There was an uptick in investments in the CPR
and cleantech sectors.
France became the third-largest source of FDI projects in Africa
in 2015, moving up one notch. Though Morocco remained the
” Ghana Embassy Paris website, paris.embassy.gov.gh, accessed 7 June 2016.
fDi Markets, 2016.
39
40
22 EY’s Africa Attractiveness Program 2016 Staying the course