By Alfred Zacharia
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to Tanzania increased by 5.5
percent, topping at $1.3 Billion in 2023, up from $1.1 billion recorded in 2022.
This is according to the World Investment Report 2024 released
by the United Nations Trade and Development (UNCTAD), which focuses on trends
in foreign direct investment (FDI) worldwide.
In previous years, FDI to Tanzania was $1 billion in 2021,
$944 million in 2020, and $1.2 billion in 2019, making the FDI total inward
stock to Tanzania reached $19.9 billion.
However, the report indicates that global foreign direct
investment (FDI) in 2023 decreased marginally, by two percent to $1.3 trillion
due to wild swings in financial flows through a small number of European
conduit economies; excluding the effect of these conduits, global FDI flows
were more than -10% lower than in 2022.
FDI inflows to Africa also declined by three percent in
2023, dropping from $54 billion in 2022 to $53 billion.
Of this amount, $13 billion was directed to North Africa
(down from $15 billion in 2022), $13 billion to West Africa (same as in 2022),
$11 billion to East Africa (down from $12 billion in 2022), $9 billion to
Southern Africa (up from $7 billion in 2022), and $6 billion to Central Africa
(down from $7 billion in 2022).
European investors remain the largest holders of FDI stock
in Africa, holding three of the top four spots (the Netherlands at $109
billion, France at $58 billion, the United States at $46 billion, and the
United Kingdom at $46 billion).