course

It is perhaps inevitable that as the prolonged global
slowdown has exerted increasing pressure on many
African economies, so too have doubts increasingly
been raised about the sustainability of Africa’s growth
momentum of the past 15 years. The reality is that growth
has slowed substantially in the last year. However, we
coming years — across the region as a whole, and in many
of the key regional economies.
From an investment perspective, the next few years may
be challenging. Not because the opportunities are no
longer there, but rather, because these opportunities are
likely to be more uneven than they have been over the
robust. While greater levels of uncertainty may have a
negative short- to medium-term impact on perceptions
of Africa’s relative attractiveness as an investment
destination, we do not anticipate a fundamental impact on
have seen over the past 5 years. A key factor here is
the structural shift in FDI – from a high concentration of
source countries and destination markets and sectors, to
a far more diverse FDI landscape. As a result, risks and
opportunities are being spread much wider, and there
is no longer an over-dependence on a limited group of
investors or sectors to drive FDI performance.
As we look forward, we do anticipate that the emphasis
of many organizations with a growth strategy in Africa is
likely to shift from rapid expansion to consolidation and
optimisation of African operations. And so, to help these
organizations take stock and stress-test their long-term
growth strategies in Africa, we have reintroduced the
strategic 7-Ps framework. This should not, however, be
African markets; it is instead the next logical phase of
growth for the many investors that continue to believe
in Africa’s longer-term prospects and are committed to
staying the course.
This view is partly borne out in the 2015 FDI data. In
a context of heightened concerns about economic and
political risk across the continent,
EY’s Africa Attractiveness Program 2016 Staying the course
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