EY’s Attractiveness Survey - Africa 2015 Making Choices

Welcome to the fifth edition of our annual Africa attractiveness survey.

This milestone is an opportunity to pause and reflect on how Africa’s attractiveness has evolved.

Our very first edition was released after a decade of strong economic growth, at a time when South Africa had just successfully hosted the football World Cup; a time of increasing optimism about Africa’s progress.

Our mission, from the outset, has been to provide factual substance to the “Africa rising” narrative. Over the past five years, we have helped tell new stories about Africa, stories of economic growth and opportunity, democratic progress and human development.

However, in telling these stories, we have also not shied away from the challenges that remain if we are going to unlock Africa’s vast human and economic potential.

So where is Africa in its journey? That is a question of perspective.

In the past year, Africa has experienced stronger headwinds than in recent times. Economic expansion this year is likely to be at its slowest in five years, dragged down by the impact of lower oil prices on the Nigerian and Angolan economies, as well as South Africa’s sluggish growth.

Our survey reveals that investor sentiment has softened somewhat, and that FDI projects are down for a second consecutive year.

Yet economic growth across the continent remains resilient.

Despite the headwinds, growth in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) will beat the emerging markets average, and be outstripped only by developing Asia. Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Zambia and Cote d’Ivoire are among 22 economies in SSA that are expected to grow by more than five percent this year.