Uganda attracted the highest volume of investments from its regional peers in the East African Community (EAC) in 2023, highlighting Kampala’s increasingly pro-business policies that allow foreigners to own property, establish businesses, make investments, acquire domestic companies and establish Greenfield investments.

A new study by the EAC Secretariat shows that Uganda attracted the most intra-EAC investments in the year valued at $280.74 million, though representing a 28 percent decline from $391 million in 2022.

Uganda’s highest cross-border investments were from Tanzania accounting for 82.3 percent ($231.129 million) of the investments registered in 2023 from EAC countries, while the highest number of projects came from Kenya (six) creating 464 jobs. It was followed by Burundi, whose intra-EAC investments increased both in terms of numbers and value.

The number of investment projects in Bujumbura doubled to four, with their value increasing to $155.18 million from a low of $1.9 million in the same period the previous year.

The largest cross-border investments for Burundi were from Kenya, at $153.28 million.

The EAC Trade and Investment Report (2023) shows Rwanda’s intra-EAC investment inflows increased to $55.16 million from $ 46.78 million, and the number of projects also increased to 18 from 15, while Kenya’s intra-EAC investment decreased to $1.32 million from a high of $22.6 million.

For Kenya, the number of investment projects declined to eight in 2023 from 10 in 2022 with four originating from Uganda with a value of $920,000.

According to the report, Tanzania’s intra-EAC investments fell to $74.77 million in 2023 from $138.5 million in 2022. Its highest-value project from the EAC was from Rwanda worth $64.94 million, displacing Burundi.

Overall, intra-EAC planned investments decreased by 5.6 percent to $567.17 million in 2023 from $600.78 million in 2022, with the number of projects decreasing by to 72 from 76.

Burundi’s total investment in 2023 was $2.78 billion, from eight economic sectors, with wholesale, retail trade, and tourism accounting for 34.3 percent, followed by mining and quarrying, finance, insurance, real estate and business services and manufacturing.

The highest number of projects were in wholesale, retail trade and tourism (113) manufacturing (77), and finance, insurance, real estate and business services (73).

Though mining and quarrying didn’t have that many projects, it had the highest potential for job creation, with 10,404 jobs.

The report notes that 176 projects, local and foreign, were facilitated in Kenya in 2023, compared with 178 in 2022, but the value of the planned investment projects declined to $637 million from $747 million the previous year.

Kenya’s main source of investments in terms of the value of the projects were UK, which had the highest investment value of $110.85 million from 13 projects, followed by China ($90.56 million), and Netherlands ($35.77 million).

In 2023, Nairobi registered foreign investments excluding cross-border investments worth $374.6 million in 146 projects, down from $710.21 million in 209 projects the previous year.

The manufacturing Sector continues to lead in offering jobs – 3,442 of the 7,059 created.

In terms of value of investments, manufacturing was still in the lead with investments worth $126.82 million, followed by finance, insurance, real estate and business services at $62.90 million, and community, social and personal services at $62.30 million.

Rwanda’s domestic investments increased by 81.07 percent to $959.5 million from $529.9 million, with the top sectors attracting significant investments being real estate, manufacturing, arts, entertainment and recreation.

Rwanda registered an increase in the value of foreign investments worth $1.46 billion (332 projects) in 2023, accounting for a 50.7 percent increase from $975 million (243 projects) in 2022.

Rwanda’s top sources for the FDI were India ($175.2 million) with 42 projects and UAE ($138.2 million) with two projects.

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