Data: Chinese Investment in Africa
Chinese FDI in Africa Data Overview
Chinese FDI annual flows to Africa, also known as OFDI (“Overseas Foreign Direct Investment”) in Chinese official reports, have been increasing steadily since 2003.
Flows surged from US$75 million in 2003 to US$5 billion in 2021, then dropped to US$1.8 billion in 2022. They peaked in 2008 at US$5.5 billion due to the purchase of 20% of the shares in Standard Bank of South Africa by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC).
As shown in the chart below, Chinese FDI flows to Africa have exceeded those from the U.S. since 2013, as U.S. FDI flows have generally been declining since 2010. The top five African destinations for Chinese FDI in 2022 were South Africa, Niger, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, and Cote d'Ivoire. For American investment, they were Egypt, South Africa, Libya, Equatorial Guinea, and Angola. However, the US government has not disclosed FDI flows to eight African countries to protect the commercial data of individual companies.