Egyptian officials put their country’s investments across Africa at about $14 billion. That figure includes the $3 billion Julius Nyerere Hydropower Project in Tanzania, which a consortium led by Egyptian companies built. Cairo plans to host the inaugural three-day Alamein Africa Forum on Friday, seeking to strengthen its influence on a continent where China and Gulf states, particularly the United Arab Emirates, have become major players.
The Regional Push
More than 20 heads of state and government representatives are expected at the forum, alongside business leaders, bankers and development institutions. Egypt has long focused on the Middle East and Mediterranean. Now it wants to rebuild its influence in Africa and rally support in its dispute with Ethiopia over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).
“This is an African platform,” Mohamed Abu Bakr Saleh, Egypt’s deputy foreign minister for African affairs, told AFP. He said the forum would let “a country in East Africa” sign an agreement with a country in West, North or southern Africa. Saleh said the event would become biennial under an African Union mandate. Discussions will cover infrastructure, trade, agriculture, healthcare, mining, technology and renewable energy.
“Africa possesses vast resources, but they are still not being exploited to the level we would like to see,” Saleh said. Trade within Africa totalled $192 billion in 2023, about 15 percent of the continent’s total trade. Asia’s comparable share exceeded 55 percent, while Europe’s topped 70 percent. Africa attracted about $70 billion in foreign direct investment in 2025, against roughly $1.6 trillion invested globally, according to the UN.
The forum comes as the Egypt-Ethiopia dispute over the $5 billion GERD remains unresolved. The project is described as Africa’s largest hydroelectric project. Ethiopia says the dam, which it inaugurated last year, is vital to economic growth. Egypt says it could threaten Nile water supplies without a binding operating agreement. More than a decade of negotiations hasn’t settled the dispute. “Our position on Egypt’s water security has not changed and will not change,” Saleh said. “It is an existential issue for Egypt.”
Capital and Cross-Border Rules
At the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York, United Bank for Africa (UBA) Group Managing Director/CEO Oliver Alawuba called for easier capital flows, more intra-African trade and stronger partnerships. Speaking at the Forward Africa Leaders Symposium, Global Conversations 2026, at the Harvard Club in New York, he urged governments to cut regulatory and currency barriers. “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.”
Alawuba said businesses operating across African countries face multiple regulations, central banks and policies, which can hinder capital. UBA has about $30 billion in total assets, he said, but currency restrictions can make it difficult to bring capital back and pose “a big risk.” He pointed to a Kenyan tea farmer seeking to sell to Ghana, who must use a dollar currency to complete the transaction.
Alawuba welcomed the African Continental Free Trade Area, but said payment systems remained a hurdle. UBA is developing a payment platform with several countries, he said, and has agreed with the African Continental Free Trade Area on a $6 billion fund for small and medium-sized enterprises. UBA operates in 20 African countries and financial centres including the UK.
Investment Projects and Local Opposition
Alawuba also met World Bank Group President Ajay Banga to discuss long-term capital for infrastructure, energy, agribusiness, SMEs and regional trade. UBA said its presence across 20 African markets helped it identify bankable projects, connect them to financing and support implementation. The article described attracting long-term private investment for projects requiring substantial funding as a challenge for African businesses.
South Africa’s foreign direct investment inflows climbed to 49.8 billion rand ($3.03 billion) in the second quarter of 2026, from 20.3 billion rand in the previous quarter, the South African Reserve Bank said. A local telecommunications company received debt funding from a non-resident parent company, driving the increase. The bank didn’t name the company because the transaction wasn’t public.
Aliko Dangote said investor demand for the share sale in his Lagos refinery was “enormous.” The $1.6 billion initial public offering, launched earlier in September, aims to fund a doubling of the refinery’s capacity to 1.4 billion barrels per day. Marketed as a “people’s IPO,” the offer is scheduled to close on October 13 and could raise as much as $2.1 billion if oversubscribed. Bamboo chief executive Richmond Bassey said the platform recorded a 350% surge in new accounts in the week before the offering opened, with an even higher rate after launch.
Work on a 700,000-barrel-per-day refinery for the East African market is due to begin on Wednesday near Lamu, Kenya’s second deep-water port. Dangote said the project would cost $16 billion and regional governments had been offered a 30% stake. Kenya and Rwanda were among governments investing. Rwanda had sought a 10% stake, a request still under discussion. Conservationists and a group of local residents challenged the project at Kenya’s High Court. Dangote said traders opposed it because their businesses would be disrupted.