The Next Phase Of Africa’s Investment Growth Lies In Implementation

By Angela Ng’ang’a,serves as the Board President of the American Chamber of Commerce Kenya (AmCham Kenya)

On September 20, 2026, at the Global Africa Business Initiative in New York, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres reflected on Africa’s growing influence in global markets and on the world stage. But his remarks also pointed to a more important question: How can that growing influence translate into economic growth that creates value and opportunity for Africans?

Africa’s investment story has long been framed around its abundant natural resources, young and growing population, entrepreneurial energy and expanding markets. 

But Africa’s potential doesn’t create prosperity.  The next phase of Africa’s growth will depend less on making even bigger promises about what the continent could become, and more on creating the conditions that allow businesses to invest, operate, and scale with confidence.

According to the African Private Capital Association, African private capital recorded US$5.1 billion across 530 deals in 2025, with deal volume increasing by 8%. Investment opportunities continue to emerge across technology, financial services, energy, agriculture, healthcare, manufacturing and the creative economy. But the value of these opportunities ultimately depends on whether businesses can move from identifying an opportunity to operating successfully, scaling their businesses and having sufficient confidence in the market to invest.

For investors, that confidence is shaped by the practical experience of doing business. Clear regulation, effective tax administration, reliable energy and infrastructure, efficient logistics, digital connectivity and access to skilled talent all influence whether a company can establish itself, operate efficiently and grow. As global capital becomes more selective, these conditions increasingly form part of how investors assess markets alongside the underlying opportunity itself.

This also means thinking beyond the ability of individual countries to attract investment. Africa’s economic future cannot be built through 54 separate investment propositions operating in isolation. A company that succeeds in one African market should be able to look across the continent and see a pathway to its next market, rather than rebuilding its business model, navigating entirely different regulatory systems, and duplicating processes at every border.

The African Continental Free Trade Area provides an important foundation for this ambition. But integration must translate into practical improvements for businesses: greater regulatory coherence, more efficient movement of goods and services, better regional infrastructure and investment frameworks that make cross-border expansion more straightforward.

This is also where the relationship between governments and the private sector becomes important. Governments have a responsibility to create predictable policy and regulatory environments and to invest in the infrastructure and institutions that allow markets to function effectively. Businesses, meanwhile, stand to provide practical insight into where policies, processes and regulatory requirements create unnecessary barriers to investment and expansion. 

For organizations such as the American Chamber of Commerce Kenya, this creates an important role in the investment conversation. AmCham does not need to make the case that Africa has opportunities; businesses and investors are already recognizing this. Its value lies in strengthening relationships between investors and policymakers, bringing the experience of companies operating in African markets into conversations about practical barriers to investment, and supporting an environment in which businesses can establish themselves, remain, and expand.

Kenya provides a useful illustration. Its deepening commercial relationship with the United States demonstrates the potential created when government ambition, private-sector interest and international partnerships come together. The country continues to attract investment across sectors ranging from technology and financial services to energy, agriculture, manufacturing and healthcare.

In 2025, Kenya closed the year with US$3.2 billion in foreign direct investment, the highest level on record. These results came alongside deliberate efforts to strengthen how the country attracts, secures and retains investors.

Kenya’s experience also shows why this cannot be viewed solely as a government responsibility. Businesses play an important role in identifying where they encounter unnecessary friction and engaging constructively to address it. They also have a responsibility to invest for the long term, develop local capabilities and contribute to the economies in which they operate, rather than treating African markets simply as destinations for capital.

That was the spirit in which the AmCham Business Summit closed earlier this September. Kenya entered it with record foreign direct investment behind it, and over two days the conversation moved from opportunity to specifics. The extension of AGOA to December 2028 shifted the focus to how manufacturers can use duty-free access to grow exports to the U.S. Kenya and the U.S. committed to shift the bilateral relationship from aid toward trade, investment, and job creation. The government committed to regulatory reform, including a Paperwork Reduction Act modeled on the U.S. framework and updated transfer pricing guidelines.

The private sector matched that intent. U.S. firms announced and reaffirmed more than US$600 million in commitments, among them Coca-Cola’s US$175 million, part of a five-year investment that began in 2024, and Mars Wrigley’s US$103 million production line in Athi River. Oracle selected Kenya for its first public cloud region in Africa, and a joint Tech Skills Initiative, which Oracle, Microsoft, Cisco, Google and Meta will prepare young Kenyans for the AI era. In health, SC Johnson will set up a Kenyan factory to produce up to two million malaria spatial-repellent units daily, and Pfizer will introduce 15 new pharmaceutical products, including cancer treatments.

The ultimate measure of Africa’s investment success will be whether investment translates into productive businesses, better jobs, stronger industries, greater regional trade and opportunities for the next generation.

The UN Secretary-General was right to remind us all that Africa’s growth matters to the world. But the next chapter of that growth will depend on what happens beyond the headlines, and on how Africa turns investment interest into lasting economic value, and potential into prosperity.