$70 Billion FDI and Counting: Where Investors are Stashing Money in Africa
Foreign direct investment across Sub-Saharan Africa and the wider continent reached $70 billion in 2025, driven by global demand for critical minerals, energy transition infrastructure, and supply chain realignments, UNCTAD reported. According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development’s World Investment Report 2026, titled “International Investment in a Turbulent Era,” this figure sits roughly one-third above the region’s long-term historical average, despite dropping 26 percent from 2024’s record peak. While total greenfield project values contracted by nearly a third, the overall number of announced deals actually increased, signaling a pivot toward smaller, highly targeted capital commitments across strategic economic sectors. Sub-Saharan Africa’s Least Developed Countries captured $33 billion of the total, with inflows heavily concentrated in copper, cobalt, lithium, and manganese reserves essential for global battery and electric vehicle supply chains. Non-Western investors led the expansion, as sovereign funds and corporate groups from the Gulf Cooperation Council and East Asia aggressively backed clean energy grids, port logistics, and industrial processing hubs. Mining countries like Guinea and Mozambique pulled significant capital into bauxite and liquefied natural gas developments, while Nigeria secured $4 billion in upstream oil, gas, and energy infrastructure project finance deals. East African tech and logistics corridors in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Uganda also attracted steady inflows, positioning Sub-Saharan hubs inside emerging global trade networks despite broader macroeconomic headwinds and elevated borrowing costs. UNCTAD cautioned that capital flows remain heavily concentrated in resource-rich nations, urging regional governments to implement local processing policies to convert raw mineral wealth into lasting, broad-based industrial growth. “Investment is also concentrating. A handful of strategic sectors — semiconductors, artificial intelligence, clean energy, critical minerals — now represent almost half of all announced greenfield projects in 2025. However, least developed and lower-middle-income countries together attract barely 10 per cent of them, against more than 20 per cent in other industries.” UNCTAD stated in its report. Breakdown of 2025 Foreign Direct Investment Inflows Across Africa Country / Region 2025 FDI Inflows (USD) Primary Key Drivers & Sectors Egypt $15.5 billion Manufacturing processing, real estate, and structural infrastructure projects Guinea $7.8 billion Major mining projects in bauxite and iron ore reserves Mozambique $5.7 billion Hydrocarbons and liquefied natural gas (LNG) developments Nigeria $4.0 billion Upstream oil & gas infrastructure project finance deals Ethiopia $3.8 billion Renewable power grid generation and manufacturing hubs Uganda $3.4 billion Energy transport corridors and critical mineral extraction Morocco $3.3 billion Industrial diversification, automotive, and green technology Kenya $3.2 billion Technology hubs, logistics corridors, and renewable energy Côte d’Ivoire $2.0 billion Agricultural processing and energy infrastructure Ghana $1.9 billion Mining, telecommunications, and industrial projects DR Congo $1.9 billion Critical minerals (cobalt and copper extraction) Tanzania $1.7 billion Natural gas, logistics, and mining ventures Algeria $1.5 billion Hydrocarbon expansion and energy transition projects Angola $1.1 billion Rebound in offshore oil & gas investments South Africa -$2.3 billion Net negative flows due to corporate restructuring and asset sale Other African Economies ~$20.5 billion Dispersed small-scale greenfield projects, agriculture, and services TOTAL (Africa Continent) $70.0 billion Regional Total (Down from $94B in 2024) Source: UNCTAD World Investment Report 2026. African Least Developed Countries (LDCs) accounted for $33.0 billion of the total.
Kenya rejects UN claims of sexual abuse by Haiti mission officers
The Kenyan government has formally disputed a United Nations report that substantiated four allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse involving members of the multinational security mission in Haiti, marking a significant diplomatic rift over the conduct of the Kenyan-led police contingent. In a formal protest to UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Wednesday, Kenyan Foreign Minister Musalia Mudavadi rejected the findings, asserting that Nairobi’s own impartial investigations found no evidence of wrongdoing. The dispute centers on a UN Human Rights Office report, dated Feb. 16 and made public this month, which details four cases of abuse involving personnel from the Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission, recently restructured as the Gang Suppression Force (GSF). According to the UN report, three of the victims were children, including a 12-year-old, while the fourth was an 18-year-old. The UN referred the findings to the mission’s leadership for remedial action, noting it lacks direct legal jurisdiction over the force because it is a UN-backed mission rather than a formal peacekeeping operation. “The investigations conducted by Kenya were impartial and shared with all relevant stakeholders, including UN human rights offices and Haitian authorities,” Mudavadi stated. He accused the report of “misrepresenting findings” and maintained that Kenyan officers have strictly adhered to the Status of Forces Agreement and operational frameworks since their deployment in June 2024. The clash highlights ongoing concerns regarding accountability in international interventions in Haiti. The previous UN mission, MINUSTAH, was severely tarnished by widespread sexual abuse scandals and a cholera outbreak before its conclusion in 2017. The current dispute arrives at a critical juncture for the GSF. This week, the mission began incorporating new personnel from contributing nations, including an advance team from Chad, to bolster the approximately 1,000 Kenyan officers tasked with reclaiming Port-au-Prince from powerful criminal gangs. While the UN has called for “maximum transparency and no impunity,” legal experts note that under the current mandate, the power to prosecute individual officers remains solely with their home countries. Kenyan authorities reiterated their commitment to Haitian stability but insisted that their sovereign legal processes have cleared their personnel of the specific allegations cited by the UN.
