TUNIS - With the eighth edition of the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) kicking off in Tunis, Tunisia on August 27, Japan is looking to change its Africa policy from one focusing on aid to foreign direct investment (FDI)—a move it considers more pragmatic.
But critics have highlighted that Japan’s investment strategies in Africa have yielded little benefits since the first edition of TICAD in 1993, with the balance of Japan’s FDI in Africa, which stood at $12 billion at the end of 2013, declining to about $4.8 billion at the end of 2020, compared to $65 billion from the UK, $60 billion from France, $48 billion from the US, and $43 billion from China in the same period.
The number of Japanese companies operating in Africa slowly increased from 520 in 2010 to 796 in 2019 but total investment has fallen in recent years.
This year’s summit is a chance for Japan to prove critics wrong, and give its private sector renewed impetus to invest in Africa and lend to the continent as economic engagement by its great geopolitical rival China drops off.
Japan’s influence in the G7’s Build Back Better World (B3W) could help also unlock more funds for Africa.
