By Cecilia Chiluba/Zambia/Lusaka
A new COMESA Investment Report 2025 has revealed that Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into the regional bloc surged to a historic US$65 billion in 2024, driven largely by Egypt’s Ras El-Hekma mega-project.
The landmark report reveals that FDI inflows surged by 154 percent, marking the strongest performance in the region’s history.
Developed by UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in collaboration with the COMESA Regional Investment Agency (RIA), the report was launched by the COMESA Council of Ministers.
The report provides a comprehensive assessment of FDI dynamics in the region and presents evidence-based recommendations aligned with the COMESA Medium-Term Strategic Plan 2026–2030.
“Even excluding this one initiative, inflows would still have grown by 16 percent, signaling broad-based investor confidence across the region,” reads the report.
According to the document, COMESA’s share in global FDI doubled, rising from 2 to 4 per cent, while its share in developing-economy inflows rose from 3 to 7 per cent, accounting for 67 per cent of total FDI inflows in Africa.
It further highlights that European and North American investors remain the largest holders of FDI stock in COMESA, led by the Netherlands and the United States.
A major highlight of the report is the exceptional surge in international project finance (IPF) in COMESA, which nearly doubled to US$79 billion or over 93% and accounted for four-fifths of Africa’s total IPF value.
Beyond equity investments, the region also experienced exceptional growth in international project finance, which nearly doubled to US$79 billion.
This represents about 80 percent of Africa’s total IPF value—driven by large-scale renewable energy, grid expansion and construction projects in Egypt, Tunisia, Rwanda and Malawi
Large-scale renewable energy, grid expansion and construction projects—especially in Egypt, Tunisia, Rwanda and Malawi—were the main contributors.
“Greenfield investment also remained strong at US$77 billion announced in 2024 (second-highest on record) while COMESA captured two-thirds of all greenfield value in Africa,” COMESA stated.
Investment remains highly concentrated despite strong headline growth in five countries—Egypt, Ethiopia, Uganda, DRC, Kenya—accounted for 90% of inflows.
However, the report indicated that intra-COMESA investment remained extremely low at 3% of greenfield project number and 6% of greenfield value.
“Without wider country participation, COMESA’s investment expansion may not translate into broad-based development gains,” the report warns.
