Oil pushes Ghana up to 3rd largest receiver of FDI inflows in Africa in 2011 – UN
Ghana has become the 3rd largest recipient of foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows into Africa for the year 2011, according to the World Investment Report (WIR) 2012 released by the United Nations July 5, 2012. And oil production at the Jubilee oil field contributed to that.
The UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) report showed that Ghana received about $3.2 billion FDI inflows at the end of 2011 as against $2.5 billion in 2010 and $2 billion in 2009.
Nigeria was Africa’s largest recipient of FDI flows in 2011 with $8.92 billion, accounting for over one fifth of all flows to the continent, followed by South Africa – $5.8 billion and Ghana. Inflows into Africa for the year was $42.7 billion.
Ghana was the 7th largest receiver of FDIs in Africa in 2010. Angola was the largest earner with an amount of $9.9 billion, followed by Egypt, Nigeria and Libya all earning $6.4 billion, $6.1 billion and $3.8 billion respectively. DR Congo had $2.9 billion, Congo Brazzaville $2.8 billion; Ghana received $2.5 billion while Algeria, Sudan and South Africa received $2.3 billion, $1.6 billion and $1.6 billion from the continent’s FDI inflows share.
Why Ghana leaped from 7th to 3rd as Africa’s FDI receiver, the WIR 2012 stated that “Ghana, in particular, benefited from FDI in the newly developed Jubilee oil field, where commercial production started in December 2010.”
Flows to West Africa in 2011, according to UNCTAD, were destined primarily for Ghana and Nigeria, which together accounted for some three quarters of the sub-region’s inflows.
Guinea, however, emerged with one of the strongest gains in FDI growth in 2011, a trend that is likely to continue in the next few years in view of the $6 billion that State-owned China Power Investment Corporation plans to invest in bauxite and alumina projects, says the report.
Overall, inward FDI flows to West Africa expanded by 36%, to $16.1 billion, the UN trade agency said.
By Ekow Quandzie