Five of the world’s richest men have pumped billions of shillings into the Kenyan economy in the last five years confirming Nairobi’s position as East Africa’s investment hub. Nigeria’s Aliko Dangote, India’s Mukesh Ambani, Ratan Tata and the Sanghi brothers and Egypt’s Mansour brothers top the list of the world’s tycoons and rich families whose companies have recently put billions of shillings in new investments or expansion of established businesses.

Much of the investments in key sectors of the economy include manufacturing, automotive, energy, property and mining. This has been made in the past three years of global economic turbulence, confirming the billionaires’ faith in Kenya’s resilience.

Investment analysts said Kenya’s key attraction lies in the promise of a large and growing consumer goods market of 130 million people that has come out of East Africa’s integration project.

“These billionaires and their companies are moving into Africa’s frontier markets in search of growth opportunities and are seeing Kenya as a gateway to the continent’s consumer market,” said Sammy Onyango, the chief executive of advisory firm Deloitte East Africa.

Mr. Onyango said, “Kenya’s growing middle class, a relatively skilled workforce and ongoing movement towards better governance under the new Constitution are key factors driving foreign investor confidence in the country.”

Tata Group, chaired by Indian billionaire Ratan Tata, has lined up big ticket investments, targeting some of the most lucrative and capital-intensive segments of Kenya’s economy. Mr Tata’s net worth is estimated at $1 billion a figure thought to be grossly understated by the fact that most of his wealth, about 65.8 per cent, is in the form of shares held in charitable trusts.

Mr Tata’s final months in office are expected to be marked by an aggressive investment in African frontier markets, including Kenya. Tata operates locally as Tata Africa and is scouting for investment opportunities in pharmaceuticals, ICT, steel, construction, energy, tourism and mining where it is preparing to pump billions of shillings in the medium term.

The firm has in the past four years invested $100 million to set up a second plant at Magadi Soda, the soda ash mining company it acquired in 2006. It is also a major player in the motor vehicle market where it is competing in public transport, construction and commercial segments of the market with its Tata brand.

Kenya’s promise as an investment destination has caught the attention of Egypt’s Mansour brothers who have made public their interest in the motor vehicle market, Kenya’s second largest motor dealer General Motors.

Motor industry insiders said the deal could give the Mansour brothers a greater presence in Africa’s motor vehicle and construction market where it already has distributorship rights for big brands such as Caterpillar. The three have been listed among Africa’s 11 wealthiest individuals with a combined net worth of $5.6 billion or half of Kenya’s annual national Budget.

India’s third richest man and the world’s ninth, Mukesh Ambani, has also seen business opportunities in the Kenya and has moved to seize them with billions of shillings in real estate investments in the capital. Mr Ambani, through Delta Corporation East Africa, a local subsidiary of his Indian conglomerate-Reliance Industries, is building multi-million shilling office towers in Nairobi’s Upper Hill and Westlands areas as well as an estate in Athi River.

The 53-year old tycoon hit newspaper headlines after he reportedly earned Sh2.5 billion from two property deals in Nairobi, one of them sold to the local World Bank office. Kenya’s property market has recorded a decade-long rally in rental fees and selling prices driven by a supply shortage against rising demand from a rapidly growing population and incomes.

Wealthy investors like Mr Ambani are particularly benefitting from their ability to undertake big projects for sale to large institutional buyers such as multinationals and state-sponsored organisations.

Forbes magazine estimates Mr Ambani’s fortune at $29 billion, making him the ninth richest person in the world. The Kenyan promise has also caught the attention of Aliko Dangote, the Nigerian who is the world’s richest person of African origin. Mr Dangote is building one of Africa’s largest cement factories in neighbouring Tanzania and has made known his intention to sell up to 30 per cent of its output in Kenya. The 5.5-million-tonnes-a-year factory has announced plans to use its low-cost production model to gain a pricing advantage in Kenya’s competitive cement market.

Mr Dangote is a self-made businessman who started trading in commodities in the late 1970s before expanding to other areas such as freight and cement.

His company has a presence in nine African countries including Benin, Cameroon, Ghana, South Africa and Zambia. Mr Dangote was listed as the world’s richest person of African descent for the first time in March following a successful listing of Dangote Cement which integrated his investments across Africa with his previously public-held Benue Cement. Listed Dangote Cement now accounts for a quarter of the Nigeria Stock Exchange’s capitalisation.

The Sanghi brothers, Prakash, Sudhir, Ravi, and Girish, who own the $2 billion Indian conglomerate Sanghi Group have also entered Kenya’s cement market with a multi-million shilling investment in a plant in Pokot. Work on the plant expected to produce 1.2 million tonnes of cement annually started last year and has so far consumed more than Sh500 million.

FDI inflows to Kenya helped create an estimated 13,000 new jobs in the past two years.

East Africa is becoming increasingly important as the common market takes shape following its kick off in July 2010, opening the way for the free movement of factors of production in a market of 130 million persons.

The creation of a single economic bloc is coinciding with rapid economic growth in the region and the finding of oil and gas deposits, a move that is expected to pull in more big ticket.