Africa’s rich natural resources position it as a top investors’ destination as it offers a wide range of investment opportunities.
The continent is rich in several industries like mining, oil and gas, real estate, technology and infrastructure which are all major contributors to the continent’s economy, with abundant deposits of precious metals and minerals.
Africa also accounts for 30% of the global mineral reserve and two-thirds of the world's uncultivated arable land. In addition, the continent's proven oil reserves constitute 8% of the world's stock and 7% of global natural gas.
The Where to Invest in Africa in 2024 report published by Rand Merchant Bank (RMB), presents the investment potentials of these African countries using four measurable pillars which include;
- Economic performance and potential
- Market accessibility and innovation
- Economic stability and investment climate
- Social and human development.
Africa's top 10 investment destinations
The top 10 African countries which are most favourable as investment destinations were picked according to their total scores derived from a mean score of GDP, population, urbanisation, growth structure, inflation and more.
| Rank | Country | Overall Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Seychelles | 0.72 |
| 2 | Mauritius | 0.69 |
| 3 | Egypt | 0.49 |
| 4 | South Africa | 0.33 |
| 5 | Morocco | 0.3 |
| 6 | Ghana | 0.27 |
| 7 | Tunisia | 0.2 |
| 8 | Senegal | 0.18 |
| 9 | Nigeria | 0.163 |
| 10 | Algeria | 0.158 |
Nigeria’s performance which is below par considering its size and GDP can be traced to several factors like its heavy reliance on oil which makes up about 70% of the country's trade flow. This places Nigeria in 29th position in the report’s Economic Complexity ranking.
Also, the unstable political climate in the country plays a part in placing Nigeria in the 29th position in the report’s Complexity ranking.
According to the report, there are hopes of a viable economic growth when compared with the country’s Ease of Doing Business ranking in 2016 which put the country in 169 out of 190 as compared with the 2020 result where Nigeria scored of 131/190.