Future growth is anticipated to reach 5% for the region as a whole over the next two years, while individual countries including Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria are anticipated to achieve growth of 10-11%.
The continent also posted a combined growth rate of 3.1% in 2009, proving its resilience to the wider economic downturn.
Those investors with interests in the infrastructure space are in a particularly good position to take advantage of the opportunities in the region as underdeveloped transport, energy and telecoms networks are currently a major barrier to further growth.
Ingrid Kukuljan, co-manager of the EMEA sub-fund of the Jupiter Global Managed Fund, commented: “In a reflection of the fact that Africa is increasingly being viewed as a potential investment destination, in October 2012 the ratings agency Moody’s assigned first-time public ratings to Kenya, Nigeria and Zambia on the back of growing demand from investors for insight on sovereign creditworthiness.
"The agency assigned sovereign ratings of B1 for Kenya and Zambia, while Nigeria went one higher at Ba3, three notches below investment grade, each country supported by strong economic growth. The ratings agency Standard and Poor’s also raised its long-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings for Nigeria to ‘BB-‘ from ‘B+’, putting it in line with those of Fitch and Moody’s.”
Following a trip to the continent in which he visited Nigeria and Kenya concluded that: "Many things need to change in Africa for growth to continue at superior rates but on the ground there is an overwhelming feeling that things are moving in the right direction."
