By Pedro Canales
The UN organization for Trade and Development (UNCTAD) published a report in mid-2024 on Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) made in the African continent in 2023. According to it, Africa managed to attract $52.63 billion in total, of which the top ten countries on the list received slightly more than $33 billion.
None of the countries from the historical Maghreb made it into the top ten. Algeria ranked 14th, and Morocco 16th.
The main destinations for FDI on the continent were Egypt with $9.84 billion, South Africa ($5.23 billion), Ethiopia ($3.26 billion), Uganda ($2.88 billion), Senegal ($2.64 billion), Mozambique ($2.5 billion), Namibia ($2.34 billion), Nigeria ($1.87 billion), Ivory Coast ($1.75 billion), and the Democratic Republic of the Congo ($1.63 billion), completing the top ten.
The countries of the historical Maghreb are far behind on the list of FDI recipients. Algeria, despite having enacted a new Investment Law in 2022, which was intended to be more attractive and investor-friendly, only managed to attract $1.21 billion, primarily allocated to the hydrocarbon sector and, to a lesser extent, to agriculture, mining, and the automotive industry. In the previous year, 2022, Algeria only attracted $255 million, a sharp drop compared to 2021 when it attracted $870 million in FDI.
As for the Kingdom of Morocco, two places behind Algeria, it received a flow of $1.09 billion in 2023, which represented a decline of more than 53% compared to 2022 when the Alaouite Kingdom attracted nearly $2.1 billion. FDI in Morocco is mainly directed to energy, industry, and technology. Interestingly, Mauritania, also a member of the Maghreb group on its Atlantic coast, received $873 million in FDI in 2023.
The UNCTAD report, rather neutral in tone, merely provides figures and points out some improvements in the conditions adopted by the Maghreb countries to improve their business climates but avoids mentioning the political factors that can either favor or hinder foreign investments.