Development financing in Africa

Two years before the Monterrey Conference on Financing for Development, which was held in Mexico in 2002, Africa was labelled “the hopeless continent” by The Economist magazine. Two years before the 2015 conference in Addis Ababa, the same magazine called Africa “the hopeful continent”. Stories of optimism and praise for African economic progress are now common place in the world’s media.
Africa’s share of global financial direct investment (FDI) is rising, with the continent frequently described as the investment destination offering the highest returns in the world. Rather than being confined to the resource sector, foreign investors are increasingly attracted to the burgeoning consumer sector that is serving the growing African middle-class. Africa has started the transition from an originator of commodities to an originator of (and destination for) finished goods.