FDI inflow into Africa hit $75bn by year end – Osibanjo

Mathew Dadiya, Abuja

Vice President Yemi Osibanjo (SAN), has said that the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflow into the African region is expected to hit $75.5bn by the end of the year describing the continent of as a land of immense opportunities.

FDI is an investment made by a company or individual in one country in business interests in another country, in the form of either establishing business operations or acquiring business assets in the other country, such as ownership or controlling interest in a foreign company.

Osinbajo stated this on Thursday in Abuja at the opening session of a two day high level policy and private sector forum on trade and investment facilitation for development.

He said the expected investment inflows of $75.5bn into the region would be far higher than the $56.5bn recorded in 2016.

According to the Vice President, “We are in a time of critical challenges and in a time of huge opportunities, our population will equal the population of India and China together by 2050.

“Some say so earlier, by same year we will have the youngest population in the world, climate change has great impact on Africa than elsewhere and security challenges stubbornly remain in many of our states.

“Yet consumer’s spending is projected to reach $1.4tn in the next few years and business to business spending to reach $3.5tn in the next eight years.

“African economies are doing better than ever before despite the difficult global economic environment, Gross Domestic Product growth rate with average 2.2 percent in 2015 is estimated to rise to 3.4 percent this year and to 4.3 percent in 2018 all above global average.”

The event was hosted by Nigeria in collaboration with the ECOWAS Commission, and the World Trade Organization among others.