The flow of foreign direct investment into Africa raised by 28 per cent in 1999, reaching $10, the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) estimates in its World Investment Report, released in October. On a global scale, however, this “remained quite modest,” representing 5 per cent of total FDI into all developing countries and lagging far behind the $106 reported for developing countries in Asia.
Further limiting the impact of this investment was its narrow concentration, with some 70 per cent going to five countries: Angola ($1.8), Egypt ($1.5), Nigeria ($1.4), South Africa ($1.38) and Morocco ($847). Deregulation and privatization drew some funds into telecommunications, but transnational corporations were still primarily focused on oil and minerals. It has been noted that such investment in the extraction of natural resources, while profitable for the investing corporations does little to create significant numbers of jobs or promote broader national economic development. The main challenge would be to make African companies aware of that so as handle the situation and make their continent as well as its inhabitants benefit from it. But how and when will they feel the trigger…?
