Africa attracted about $70 billion in foreign direct investment in 2025. Globally, investors put roughly $1.6 trillion to work, according to the UN. The contrast framed a week of deal-making, summits and groundbreaking ceremonies across the continent, as governments, banks and billionaires promised development. Some people living near those projects aren't convinced.
Walls Between Markets
Trade within Africa totalled $192 billion in 2023, about 15 percent of the continent's total trade. Asia’s share tops 55 percent. In Europe, it’s over 70 percent.
Oliver Alawuba, Group Managing Director/CEO of United Bank for Africa (UBA), used a week of engagements around the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York to argue that regulation and currency barriers explain the gap. “When you look at Africa, 54 countries, you look at a big building with 54 rooms and each room has big walls… What we need to do for capital to flow is to bring down the walls,” he said at the Forward Africa Leaders Symposium at the Harvard Club.
He described what that means for ordinary traders. “Someone, a farmer, a tea farmer in Kenya trying to sell to Ghana, you have to go through a dollar currency to do that and that is difficult.” Businesses face multiple regulations and deal with central banks and several policies that “at times are a hindrance to capital,” he said. UBA has about $30 billion in total assets, yet Alawuba called the difficulty of bringing capital back across currencies “a big risk.”
He welcomed the African Continental Free Trade Area but said payment systems remain a hurdle. UBA is working with several countries on a payment platform. He also cited an agreement with the free trade area for a $6 billion fund to support small and medium-sized enterprises. “We need SMEs to rise and we need government to support the rise,” he said.
Alawuba also met World Bank Group President Ajay Banga to discuss mobilising long-term capital for infrastructure, energy, agribusiness, SMEs and regional trade. He held talks with the U.S. Export-Import Bank, too.
Big Projects, Contested Ground
Egypt is pitching a state-backed route. Officials put its African investments at around $14 billion, including Tanzania’s $3 billion Julius Nyerere Hydropower Project. Cairo hosts the inaugural three-day Alamein Africa Forum starting Friday, with more than 20 heads of state and government representatives expected. Mohamed Abu Bakr Saleh, Egypt’s deputy foreign minister for African affairs, told AFP it would become a biennial event under an African Union mandate. “Africa possesses vast resources, but they are still not being exploited to the level we would like to see,” he said.
Cairo also wants support in its dispute with Ethiopia over the $5 billion Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. Ethiopia calls the dam vital for economic growth. Egypt says it could threaten Nile water supplies without a binding operating agreement. More than a decade of talks hasn’t settled the dispute. “It is an existential issue for Egypt,” Saleh said.
In Kenya, construction of a 700,000-barrel-per-day refinery near Lamu is due to begin Wednesday. Aliko Dangote says the project will cost $16 billion. Regional governments have been offered a 30% stake, and those investing, including Kenya and Rwanda, can spread equity payments over four years. Rwanda has sought a 10% stake, a request under discussion.
Conservationists and a group of local residents have challenged the project at Kenya’s High Court. Dangote rejected the criticism and said traders whose businesses would be disrupted are driving opposition. “Everybody is saying that ‘no, we have a way that we used to make money without working hard.’ But right now, they will make money still, but they have to work hard,” he said. The source doesn’t detail the residents’ specific complaints. The court challenge remains pending.
Money Moves, Unevenly
South Africa’s foreign direct investment inflows rose to 49.8 billion rand ($3.03 billion) in the second quarter of 2026, from 20.3 billion rand the previous quarter, the South African Reserve Bank said. Debt funding from a non-resident parent to one local telecommunications company drove the jump. Portfolio flows went the other way, shifting from a 9.0 billion rand inflow to a 9.0 billion rand outflow. Non-residents sold 34.2 billion rand of domestic equities.
In Nigeria, retail investors are flooding into Dangote’s $1.6 billion initial public offering, marketed as a “people’s IPO.” Richmond Bassey, chief executive of the fintech platform Bamboo, told Reuters, “We expected a wave of retail demand in the IPO, but in reality, it’s been more like a tsunami.” Bamboo saw a 350% surge in new accounts the week before the offer opened. The offer closes October 13 and could raise as much as $2.1 billion if oversubscribed.
Why This Matters: The week’s headlines revolve around billions of dollars. But the details show who carries the risk. A Kenyan tea farmer still has to route a sale to Ghana through dollars. Residents near Lamu are turning to court because the project is moving ahead regardless. Big infrastructure and strong retail appetite can widen access to capital, but only if trade rules, payment systems and community consultation keep pace. South Africa’s numbers show how one company’s debt transfer can swing a quarter’s totals while portfolio money leaves. Regional cooperation, from the African Continental Free Trade Area to the Alamein forum, depends on public institutions setting the rules—and on whether small businesses and affected communities get a say in them.