The African Union Commission and the OECD today launched the Africa Virtual Investment Platform (AVIP), an initiative providing comprehensive, comparable data on investment across Africa to support policy and investment decisions. Now live and publicly accessible, the platform was launched in Abidjan at the African Union's Joint Specialised Technical Committee (STC) meeting on Finance, Monetary Affairs, Economic Planning and Integration and on Trade, Tourism, Industry and Minerals, held under the theme "Financing Africa's Industrialisation for Sustainable Development."
AVIP brings together data on foreign and domestic investment, public and private flows, and the policies and conditions that shape them, in one place and on a comparable basis across countries and sectors. It is designed to address perceptions of risk in Africa that often exceed the realities on the ground, pushing up the cost of capital and deterring investment.
AVIP is built on four pillars: domestic investment, mapping financial and economic conditions across African markets; international investment, tracking FDI stocks, flows and impacts; infrastructure, assessing financing conditions, risks and investment gaps; and investment policy, benchmarking national frameworks against regional, continental and global standards.
The platform is designed to serve investors seeking disaggregated data on investment conditions, policymakers monitoring the investment climate and tracking the impact of reforms, and national statistical organisations working to produce reliable, comparable investment statistics.
The platform responds to Africa's growing economic weight. Africa is projected to account for 85% of global labour force growth by 2050. Its economy grew by nearly 4% a year between 2000 and 2020, above the global average, and could double in size by 2040 if annual infrastructure investment rises from USD 83 billion to USD 155 billion. Yet the continent holds just 1.75% of the global inward stock of foreign direct investment, pointing to significant room to grow.
AVIP launches with investment data from more than 15 African countries spanning every major region of the continent. Endorsed by the G7 Leaders' Communiqué in 2024, it is co-funded by the European Union, Italy, Korea, Portugal, Spain and Türkiye, and developed with collaborating partners including the African Development Bank, Afreximbank, the IMF, the International Trade Centre, Regional Economic Communities, UNCTAD, UNIDO and the World Bank Group.
The platform will expand in phases, scaling to more than 20 African countries by 2028-2029 and aiming for coverage of more than 30 countries by 2030.
The platform is available at www.avip.africa. Governments, institutions and organisations interested in becoming partners are invited to get in touch at [email protected].
This news item was prepared by the OECD and AUC teams for the Africa Virtual Investment Platform.
