In pursuit of geopolitical clout, in 2021 the United Arab Emirates made a promise to expand aggressively into markets beyond its usual horizons.
Since then, it’s pledged more investment in Africa’s economies than any other country and now jockeys for influence with established players like China and France.
The wealthy Gulf state is piling in both through its government and private sector. It swooped in last month to save Egypt’s economy with a $35 billion deal — a figure representing 7% of the UAE’s annual economic output — and would be willing to invest a similar amount in a different African nation were a new opportunity to present itself, according to an official familiar with the Egypt bailout who asked to remain anonymous.
While these FDI numbers count money pledged and not necessarily spent, based on the deals it’s witnessing Africa’s largest bank said it’s also confident that the UAE will grow into one of the biggest sources of foreign investment on the continent over the next five years.
Growth is “not linear,” the chief executive officer of Standard Bank Group Ltd Middle East and North Africa Rassem Zok said in an interview. “Two years ago it was spectacular growth, last year it was still comfortably in the double-digits, but the next two-to-three years we’ll see a return to growth in the thirties and above.”
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