A new report released yesterday by the African Development Bank (AfDB) in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya is among the top 10 destinations for Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) in Africa. This is after attracting investment worth Sh116.4 billion ($1.2b) in 2014.

 

The African Economic Outlook 2015 report rates Kenya position six in terms of attracting investment from foreign countries and international organisations after Egypt, Morocco, Mozambique, South Africa and Congo.

 

For the last two years the country has been been aggressive to implement a series of reforms under the ease of doing business approach and generally working on the infrastructure as well as improving security with view to reducing cost of doing business.

 

The Africa economic outlook report is produced annually by the AfDB , the OECD Development Centre and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The report says Egypt attracted investments to the tune of ($6.5 billion), Morocco ($5.2 billion), Mozambique ($5 billion), South Africa ($4.2 billion) and Congo ($2.8 billion).

 

Launching the report on Monday during the opening of the AfDB annual meetings in Abidjan, Cote d’ivoire, the acting Chief economist and Vice president Steve Kayizzi-Mugerwa said investment in Kenya more than doubled in one year, reaching $1.2 billion in 2014.

 

“The country is becoming a favoured business hub, not only for oil and gas exploration, but also for manufacturing, transport and ICT,” he said. Kenya, he added, has also become a world leader in payment by mobile phone.

“The country is also building a $14.5 billion information technology hub – Konza Technology City outside Nairobi, with a view to attracting investment in business process outsourcing, software development and data centres,” noted Kayizzi-Mugerwa.

Source : IN 2 EAST AFRICA