South Africa still Africa's top destination for foreign investment

01 Sep 2015
Financial Nigeria

Summary

Despite price shocks in the mining industry in 2014, South Africa remained the top destination in Africa for FDI and was placed seventh in the overall ranking which includes the Middle East and African countries.

South African Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene

South Africa is the top-ranked country in Africa in the fDi magazine's Middle East & African Countries of the Future 2015/16 ranking, for attracting the highest number of inward Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) projects in Africa.
    
Despite price shocks in the mining industry in 2014, South Africa remained the top destination in Africa for FDI and was placed seventh in the overall ranking which includes the Middle East and African countries. South Africa is also ranked first in Africa for Economic Potential in the ranking for investment potential across 63 global locations. The ranking uses indicators in five categories including economic potential, business friendliness, human capital and lifestyle, cost of effectiveness and connectivity.
    
Between 2010 and 2014, 667 investments were made in South Africa, 19% of these were in the business services sector, while 17.86% of the total investments were in the software and IT services sector. Financial services’ share of total investment is  12.62%.

In the report which was released last month, United Arab Emirates is ranked in first place for Economic Potential, with a low unemployment rate (3.8%). The country attracted 1514 foreign investment projects between 2010 and 2014. Qatar attracted 275 inward FDI projects between 2010 and 2014; while Saudi Arabia, the third most populous country in the Middle East, attracted 516 inward FDI projects in the same period.


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