Most foreign investors have taken interest in investing in Africa as the “final frontier” leaving other emerging markets like China and India as they continue to grow.
Africa with a population of about a billion people (young and old inclusive) and with the presence of significant natural resources, the African continent has been growing in favour among investors over the past decades. However, other regions or countries in Africa has been devasted by war and regime changes keeping many multinational companies and investors away.
As compared to Europe or South America, investing in Africa clearly varies by region. For instance, Northern Africa is very similar to much of the Middle East in terms of its oil assets and major industries. South Africa on the other hand is considered as a more developed market with healthy mining industry. Sub-Saharan Africa is considered as still widely unavailable to international investors and includes lesser developed economies.
Just to mention, Northern Africa encircles countries like Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Tunisia, and Western Sahara. Quite some number of these countries are known for their substantial quantity of crude oil reserves.
Taking for example, Libya is recored to hold Africa’s largest oil reserves and seen as the 8th largest reserves in the world. Over ten percent of entire crude oil imported into Europe comes from Libya. Multinational companies have stakes in many of these oil reserves, although politics frequently interferes with operations.