Published Online:October 2024
Product Name:The IUP Journal of International Relations
Product Type:Article
Product Code:IJIR031024
Author Name:Michael Akin Popoola and Olumide Victor Ekanade
Availability:YES
Subject/Domain:Arts and Humanities
Download Format:PDF
Pages:17
The strategic role that foreign investment plays in driving the economic growth of a country cannot be overemphasized. The African region has been receiving substantial FDI from the Western countries and more recently from China, but these have not transformed the region’s economy above the level of producers of primary products. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the reasons why Africa has not benefited optimally from the huge FDI pouring into the continent, and to unearth how the region can reverse its parlous economic condition. Using analytical research method, the study discovered that the external actors’ economic engagements with Africa have been premised on their needs for strategic raw materials for their own booming industries and market for their goods, rather than the development of African industrial base which is the real driver of economic growth. Recommendations on how Africa could transform its industrial sector are also made.
Economic engagement implies capital flows, including trade deals, private capital flow or private investment involving the sender state and the target state. It could also be described as direct investment by developed nations’ companies in trade,