Kenya has been named among top investment destinations in Africa, according to a survey on international investors.
The survey conducted by the Africa Business Panel among 800 business professionals involved with Africa shows that South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya are the best African countries on the continent for investment in 2011 in that order.
Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania were also cited in the survey as investor friendly emerging in the runners up category.
Kenya and the other three top countries were earmarked as the continent’s favourites when it comes to international investment. Ghana, Angola, Tanzania, Rwanda, Botswana, Uganda and Mozambique are the runners up and complete the top ten countries for investment out of 53 economies on the African continent.
According to the findings of the survey, virtually all African economies show promising year-on-year growth a move which is attracting the attention of the international investor community who increasingly see Africa as ‘the last frontier’ for attractive growth opportunities.
Nicholas Sowden, Business Development Manager at ToughStuff Kenya commenting on the survey noted that an improved Kenyan economy, anchored in an improved investment climate had led to the rise of Kenya’s investment profile internationally.
“The Kenyan economy is growing at a blazing rate and has done so for the last 3 years. Nairobi as the regional hub for East Africa is becoming more important with the integration of the East Africa Community. For this reason dozens of companies are moving their regional and continental head quarters to Nairobi,” he said.
He added that a greatly improved information and communication technology environment had boosted Kenya’s business environment.
“Anyone interested in mobile and ICT technology will be drawn to Kenya . Its leading when comes to software developers, computer science colleges, incubators like i-Hub and others,” he said. “In terms of entrepreneurship, Nairobi is and will continue to be one of the best environments for innovation in Africa.”
According to the survey top ten countries selected by the international investor community in 2011 are all sub-Saharan. Northern Africa suffered a set back in confidence from investors owing to the political turmoil which started at the beginning of the year.
The top ten African countries selected by the international investor community in 2011 in order of preference South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, Ghana and Angola. Others were Tanzania, Rwanda, Botswana, Uganda and Mozambique in that order.
The Africa Business Confidence Index has since January 2011 published a month-on-month business confidence index. The index results for Africa based on surveys of 800 business professionals from more than 30 countries on the continent consistently show growth. Calculations are based on the purchase managers index methodology used globally.
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