Patterns and Determinants of Intra-African Foreign Direct Investment

Since the early 2000s, much has been written about surging investment by Asian-based businesses in Africa (Ajayi, 2006; Brautigam, 2009; Michel and Beuret, 2009). Conferences have been organized, institutes founded, and numerous articles have addressed Asian foreign direct investment (FDI), with special attention given to the spread of Chinese capital across the continent (Brautigam, 2014). However, there is an equally significant phenomenon that has yet to receive much consideration: African firms are actively investing as well. Intra-African foreign direct investment is growing faster than FDI from any other region and has increased over 30 percent since 2007 (Ernst and Young, 2013). In the decade from 2003 through 2013, there were actually more greenfield investments from African companies (994) than there were from Asian companies (959) (fDi Markets, 2014).