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My impression from hearing about the Belt and Road initiative was China was dominant in Africa overall. So on a continental level is China the biggest investor

• alephnerd 3y ago
  It's on a country to country basis. Africa is big. That said, "European investors remain, by far, the largest holders of FDI stock in Africa, led by the United Kingdom ($60 billion), France ($54 billion) and the Netherlands ($54 billion)" [0]. China's OBOR tends to be infamous largely for it's infeasibility. It's the IDC equivalent of a subprime loan, as most OBOR projects in Africa tended to be those that larger FDI contributors decided to pass on. There is a regional segmentation aspect as well. Africa is large and some regions saw outsized Chinese investment (DRC for example), but in other regions there was much more competition. For example, most FDI in the Horn of Africa (Djibouti, Eritrea, and Somalia) and North Africa came from Europe, Türkiye, and the Gulf States. In the former British colonies in East Africa (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, South Sudan), Indian Ocean (Seychelles, Mauritius), and Mozambique Chinese companies were directly competing with long established Indian and Pakistani conglomerates due to the centuries old existing Asian business community in the region. In Southern Africa China would be competing with South Africa along with smaller players like India. I can't speak for the rest of Africa, but I've seen China having a significant impact in West Africa and the DRC. [0] - https://unctad.org/press-material/investment-flows-africa-dropped-45-billion-2022 https://unctad.org/press-material/investment-flows-africa-dr...