The African Union (AU) urged European countries to raise up their level of investment in Africa, with its rotating chair Azali Assoumani calling for a “positive competition” with China over investment.
The AU chair made these remarks in Berlin on November 20 at the G20 Compact with Africa (CwA) summit. He noted that investment in Africa from G20 countries just about passed pre-COVID levels, it is still short of the record-breaking $53 billion made in the 2017-2018 fiscal year.
Assoumani defended Chinese investments in the continent and called Europe to embrace the competition, saying that “everyone has a place.” The summit attracted more attention from Europe, as both European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and French President Emmanuel Macron attended it, together with host German chancellor Olaf Scholz and 18 leaders from African countries.
It may be the hope that this rise in interest may speed up European countries into investing in the continent. African countries lamented often that European companies don’t invest fast enough in Africa. For instance, German companies invested in 2022 only 1% of the €163.7 billion in foreign investment that they made, with more than half going to South Africa.
Scholz promised the country will invest €4 billion in green energy projects in Africa by 2030 and he will see that Germany will import more green hydrogen from Africa. “Hydrogen production requires considerable investment at the start, so clear signals for a long-term and durable cooperation are needed,” Scholz said.
