Kenya’s capital city named among top 4 top investments cities in Africa - UN

Nairobi is one of the four cities the United Nations has identified among top four African markets that attract highest foreign capital inflows, crucial to creating wealth.
Kenya’s Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) rose 71 per cent to Sh67 billion ($672 million) last year, according to UN Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad).

Kenya’s capital city has made it in the United Nation’s enviable list of top investments destinations on the continent.

Nairobi is one of the four cities the United Nations has identified among top four African markets that attract highest foreign capital inflows, crucial to creating wealth.

The UN-Habitat, in a report, says East Africa, led by Kenya’s capital, is set to record a sustained growth in foreign direct investment (FDI) in coming years.

“The four major FDI centres in Africa are identified as Cairo, Lagos, Johannesburg and Nairobi and the report suggests both West and East Africa are likely to experience sustained investment growth, primarily in manufacturing,” the UN says in its State of African Cities 2018 report.

Foreign investments also hold the key to graduating the country from agriculture-based, primary economy to one led by manufacturing and knowledge-based industries, the UN says.

Also read: Kenya's capital is the most expensive city in Africa to buy a meal

If guided well, the study suggests, that the flow of foreign capital has the capacity to cut the high levels of urban poverty and unemployment.

“A skilled workforce is becoming more important than low wages, and good governance and regional integration are also key elements,” it reads.

In 2017, several multinationals pumped in fresh capital into expanding their operations in Kenya, including South Africa's Naspers, MTN and Intact Software.

UK’s alcohol brewer Diageo further boosted FDI in Kenya’s consumer sector. Others were Boeing, Microsoft, Oracle, and Johnson & Johnson.

The global agency championed development of infrastructure, including air, land and sea links, as a way of improving accessibility, urban mobility and opening up local markets.