NAIROBI, (The Southern African Times) – Kenya’s foreign direct investment (FDI) declined 18 percent in 2020 as compared to 2019 due to disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the country’s investment agency said Wednesday.
Moses Ikiara, managing director of Kenya Investment Authority (KenInvest), told Xinhua in Nairobi that total investments in Kenya are estimated at 140 billion shillings (about 1.31 billion U.S. dollars) in 2020.
“Globally there was an average decline of 40 percent on the value of FDI in 2020 but in Kenya we performed better,” Ikiara said on the sidelines of the Kenya-Tanzania business forum.
Ikiara added that most of the foreign capital inflows into the country last year were concentrated in the energy, health and agriculture sectors. He noted that Kenya registered a number of new investment projects in the area of manufacturing of personal protective equipment required to curb the spread of COVID-19 pandemic.
According to Ikiara, the agricultural sector also performed well because it was relatively unaffected by the travel restrictions put in place in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic.
He believed that this year the real estate sector and information communication technology are expected to receive significant foreign capital inflows.
