Heba Salama, CEO of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) Regional Investment Agency, highlighted the strong growth of foreign direct investment (FDI) into COMESA member states, underscoring the region’s rising attractiveness as a global investment destination. Speaking at the opening session of the second COMESA Investment Forum 2026 held in Nairobi, Salama said that FDI inflows into COMESA countries surged 154% in 2024, reaching a record $65bn, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development COMESA Investment Report 2025, despite ongoing global economic headwinds. However, even excluding this project, investment inflows would have grown by 16%, reflecting broad-based investor confidence across the region. Salama added that COMESA’s share of global FDI has doubled from 2% to 4%, while its share of FDI directed to developing economies rose from 3% to 7%. Today, the region accounts for roughly 67% of total FDI inflows into Africa.

Source: Daily News Egypt March 17, 2026 17:53 UTC