South Africa tops in foreign investment flows to Tanzania

By The guardian reporter

Minister for Investment and Empowerment,Dr. Mary Nagu

South Africa has for the past half decade been the leading source of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the country, an authoritative report has indicated.

This is observed in a combined report grouping key investment regulatory institutions, namely the Tanzania Investment Centre (TIC), the Bank of Tanzania BoT), the Zanzibar Investment Promotion Agency (ZIPA), the National Bureau of Statistics and the Office of the Chief Government Statistician in Zanzibar (OCGS) under central bank direction.

The report shows that in 2011 South Africa led the pack as top source of FDI with investments worth $2,177.9million, followed by Britain with investments valued at$1,344.8million, with Canada taking third place in the top three, having injected $1,080million worth of investments in that year.

Two African countries followed at a distance, namely Mauritius with investments put at $650.4million, and Kenya injecting $517.4million investments in that year.

Only Botswana featured in the last group of top investors, where Switzerland occupied a special middle position with investments put at $276.8million. Japan and Norway investment flows to Tanzania were somewhat similar at $197.3million for Japan and $183.8million for Norway.

Botswana crossed the $100m mark at a comfortable $114.9milllion worth of investments, with France locking the table with $75milllion in that year.

Taken as a whole the top four sources of FDI flows, South Africa, the United Kingdom and Canada accounted for 72 percent of total FDI inflows from 2008 to 2010, the report noted, contrasting flows into services and industry with poor flows into agriculture.

The latter continued to be the largest single sector of economic activity with 27.1 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has continued to record low levels FDI, despite that increase to that sector went up by nearly 50 percent in the 2008-2011 period, it said.

Annual inflows to this sector were lower than that of traditional recipients such as mining and quarrying, manufacturing, finance and insurance along with information and communication, it said.

The report, cited at the Tanzania Investment Report of 2012 that was launched yesterday shows that despite more than 80 percent of Tanzanians are earning an income in the agricultural sector, foreign investment remains low, thus not many peasants benefit from foreign investments in the sector.

Inflows into the agricultural sector in 2008 stood at $21.2million and in 2011 it was slated at $355.4million, while mining and quarrying sector was 699.8 USD million in 2008 and  was 4,123.0 USD million in 2011.

Speaking during the launching of the report, The Deputy Governor of The Bank of Tanzania (BOT) Dr. Natu Mwamba, said “ inflows to agriculture increased by nearly 50 percent from USD 21 million in 2008 to USD 31 million in 2011, but still remained low compared to inflows to traditional recipients particularly mining and manufacturing”
She added that FDI inflows by activity indicates that electricity and gas which had been receiving less than USD 3.0million in 2008 and 2009 experienced a sharp increase to USD 290.5 million in 2010 and USD 209.4 million in 2011 following the heavy investment in exploration and production of natural gas and electricity.

Officiating at the launching, the State Minister for Investment and Empowerment,   Dr. Mary Nagu said that it is necessary to step up efforts to make agriculture more attractive to investors.

“Such efforts include investment in rural infrastructure irrigation schemes as well as rural electrification to facilitate agro processing and expediting countrywide land mapping and categorization to buildup a reliable land bank,” the minister noted.

Tanzania Investment Centre (TIC) Executive Director, Ms Julieth Kairuki said the survey findings revealed that the stock of foreign private investment flows increased at annual rate of 10.3 percent to $10393million in 2011 from $7751million in 2008.

 Foreign private investment inflows were impacted by the global financial crisis as they fell by about 34 percent to $ 952.6million the following year, the report indicated.

“In 2010 inflows recovered to $1813.3million but declined again in 2011 to $ 1229.4million largely due to payment of short and long term loans connected to the dismal financial condition in advanced economies,” it said.

NSB Director General Dr. Albina Chuwa highlighted recommendations of the survey, including enhancing efforts to improve the investment climate as well as promoting strategic investments to consolidate the growth momentum experienced so far with private capital flows.

The three collaborating institutions, namely TIC, TBS and BoT similarly urged an expediting of ongoing initiatives to put in place policy and regulatory frameworks governing electricity and gas activities following the sharp increase in inflows, to provide guidance and ensure maximum benefits to the country.

SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN