Africa Records Third-Highest Foreign Direct Investment Inflows at $70 Billion

Foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows into Africa reached $70 billion in 2025, marking the third-highest annual total in the past 25 years, according to the latest World Investment Report released by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

Although the figure represents a decline from the record $94 billion registered in 2024, the report said the drop largely reflects a return to more typical investment levels following an exceptional year driven by a handful of mega-projects.

UNCTAD noted that the surge in 2024 was primarily fueled by several large-scale transactions, most notably Egypt’s Ras El Hekma development project, which significantly boosted total investment flows into the continent. As a result, the lower figure recorded in 2025 should be viewed as a normalization of investment activity rather than a deterioration in Africa’s attractiveness to foreign investors.

The report also highlighted that 2025 FDI inflows remained roughly one-third higher than the average annual level recorded between 2010 and 2024, underscoring the continent's continued resilience despite a challenging global investment environment.

According to UNCTAD, excluding exceptional one-off transactions, such as a major investment deal in South Africa in 2021 and the Ras El Hekma agreement in Egypt in 2024, Africa's investment performance in 2025 represents its strongest showing in decades.