Egypt Today: The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) reported a record-breaking surge in foreign direct investment (FDI) for 2024, with inflows rising 154% to $65 billion, boosted primarily by Egypt’s landmark Ras El Hekma development.
The figures were released in the 2025 COMESA Investment Report, unveiled during the Ministerial Council meeting held in Zambia.
Even without counting the Ras El Hekma project, FDI into COMESA countries grew by 16%, signaling strengthening investor confidence across the region. COMESA’s share of global FDI doubled from 2% to 4%, while its share of flows to developing countries jumped from 3% to 7%, representing 67% of Africa’s total FDI. The Netherlands and the United States remained the top investors.
Prepared in cooperation with UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the COMESA Regional Investment Agency (RIA), the report offers updated data and strategic insights aligned with the bloc’s Medium-Term Strategic Plan 2026–2030.
The report highlights a major rise in International Project Finance (IPF), which nearly doubled to $79 billion, accounting for four-fifths of all IPF activity in Africa. The increase was driven by large-scale renewable energy, power grid, and infrastructure projects in Egypt, Tunisia, Rwanda, and Malawi.
Greenfield investment also remained strong, with announced projects valued at $77 billion, marking the second-highest level in COMESA’s history and representing two-thirds of Africa’s total Greenfield investment value.
However, the report underscores continued concentration of FDI in a handful of countries. Egypt, Ethiopia, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Kenya attracted 90% of total inflows. Intra-COMESA investment also remained relatively limited at 3% of project count and 6% of value.
Sectoral trends showed wide variation:
- Construction grew nearly fivefold, driven by expansions in Egypt,
- Basic metals rose by 71%,
- Energy and gas remained the leading investment sector with 22% growth,
- and extractives fell sharply by 61%, and ICT declined 55% after a record 2023.
Investments tied to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) delivered mixed results. Renewable energy surged 67%, while health and education climbed 130%. Meanwhile, food systems dropped 34%, water and sanitation fell 76%, and infrastructure investment declined 54%, despite stronger global transport financing.
The report identifies five priority areas for sustaining momentum: expanding the number of beneficiary countries, accelerating value-added manufacturing, closing the ICT infrastructure gap, investing in human capital, and enhancing data quality for informed policymaking.
Ambassador Mohamed Kadah, Assistant Secretary General for Programmes, said the results reflect “growing global confidence in COMESA’s economic trajectory.” UNCTAD’s Richard Bolwijn emphasized that COMESA delivered “an exceptional year of record growth despite global headwinds,” while RIA CEO Heba Salama described the report as “a strategic tool to boost competitiveness and attract higher-quality investment.”
https://www.egypttoday.com/Article/3/143854/Egypt-s-Ras-El-Hekma-deal-pushes-COMESA-FDI-inflows
