After four editions, the South African Investment Conference has brought the world to Africa’s most industrialized economy, bringing with it an estimated 700 billion rand worth of investment. The 2022 edition highlighted the strengths and advantages that the country offers and why it is still a choice investment destination. Pledges received in the first three conferences amounted to nearly 65% of the five-year investment mobilization drive target of 1.2 trillion rand. The first edition of Business Edge for the week focuses on South Africa’s ambitious plans for its investment conference. From Pretoria South Africa, Yunus Hoosen, Deputy Director General & CEO of Invest SA joins Tolulope Adeleru-Balogun in New Central’s Lagos studios.
“In all of the investment conferences, South Africa has been ahead of the target,” says Yunus Hoosen about the target set for each edition of the conference. At the penultimate one, a total of 700 billion dollars was pledged by various global and domestic investors. This is more than halfway towards the 1.2 trillion rand President Cyril Ramaphosa set in 2018, despite the fact that one couldn’t hold in 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic. “At the conclusion of last week’s conference, with the announcement of investments and pledges, we’re at 95%,” he adds.
It is also remarkable that despite the global crunch as a result of the COVID19 pandemic and more recently the Russia-Ukraine crisis, investors are still bullish on South Africa and have continued to make commitments. This, Hoosen says is because President Ramaphosa’s ambitious target of 1.2 trillion rand in 2018 was accompanied by policy drives that ensure that such investment is protected. “A number of the policies that have come into place really stood us in good stead in terms of the investment promotion drive, liberalization of the energy policy, for example, the auction of the spectrum… [all of these] are providing greater confidence for not only foreign investment but also domestic investment.”
Watch the full episode above.
