Nairobi, July 22 -- Foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows into Eastern Africa dropped by a fifth last year compared to 2019, marking a third straight year of decline that was exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic that restricted international capital flows.
FDI inflows into Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Burundi fell from $6.25 billion (Sh677 billion) in 2019 to $5.09 billion (Sh551 billion) last year, data from the World Investment Report 2021 by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) shows.
While Covid-19 helped accelerate the decline last year-FDI inflows declined by nine percent in 2018 and 2019- there were policy bottlenecks and heightened political risk in some countries that made it more dif...