Online Database to track Investors in Africa

Last Updated 14 years ago by Kenya Engineer

An Investment Monitoring Platform (IMP) has been launched by the United Nations to help policy makers track foreign direct investments (FDIs) into Africa. The database will enable countries to formulate policies that will attract more FDIs.

The online database has information on more than 5,000 companies in Africa. It shows the performance of these companies in various sectors and their perceptions towards various countries as investment destinations. The site also records investment flows to every country.

The online database could be of great benefit to Kenya which has been loosing out on opportunities after recording only 4 per cent of total inflows in all Africa as per the latest report by Ernst Young, a global consulting firm. It was however the lead investor in Africa in the last four years going by the number of new projects set up.

According to World Bank data, Uganda, Tanzania and Ghana recorded growth in net FDI between 2004 and 2010. Tanzania attracted more than $800 million in the period.
Currently, the platform has data on 19 countries in Africa and is expected to expand to the rest of the continent and eventually the rest of the world.

The online tool will analyze sales, employment and exports and also show government incentives given to various sectors. The database also shows linkages between domestic and foreign companies, investor perceptions among others.

The IMP has interactive data visualization tools such as pie charts, bubble charts and heat maps, helping the user to easily draw comparisons. It has a built-in online report generator and devices for information-sharing of research results.
UN is seeking to have more companies participate in the survey in order to ease data collection.

Participating companies can showcase their products on the platform. The data also ranks top performers, foreign and local. The platform will also help companies to map out suitable investment destinations by tracking changes in policy environment in various countries, helping them to grow their investments.It will also show the effect of the investments in terms of jobs created, wages paid and value-addition to the economy.

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