South Africa is the leading investment destination in Africa - EY

South Africa is the leading investment hub in the continent.

This is according to the latest Africa Attractiveness Index released by global advisory firm EY.

Despite the country’s slow economic growth and a gloomy ratings outlook, Africa’s most developed economy outperformed other African economies. Morocco, Egypt and Kenya emerged second, third and and fourth respectively.

Ivory Coast, which has emerged as a leading economic hub in Africa, ranked 10 while Africa’s largest economy Nigeria was 15th on the list.

EY explained that Nigeria’s relative under-performance on the Index was as a result of lower scores on the business enablement, governance and human development pillars which impacted its overall ranking.

The firm said that economic growth across the continent is likely to remain slow in the medium term in respect to the International Monetary Fund forecast of 3 percent in 2016.

“From an investment perspective, the next few years may be challenging. This is not because the opportunities are no longer there, but rather because these opportunities are likely to be more uneven than they have been,” said Sugan Palanee, the African markets leader for EY.

EY was quick to add that the slowdown in economies was not unique to Africa and that globally, economies are depressed due to low commodity prices and high borrowing costs.

On a positive note, the firm noted that two-thirds of economies in sub-Saharan Africa are still growing at rates above the global average and that the region will remain the fastest growing in the foreseeable future.

The EY attractiveness index helps in measuring likely resilience in the face of macroeconomic pressures as well as progress being made by governments in areas of long term development.

News Agencies