Negative perception affecting external investment to Africa

The African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) has said negative perceptions about the economic environment in Africa was a key factor in militating against the flow of external investment into Africa, a statement emailed to Xinhua on Monday said.

Denys Denya, the bank's executive vice-president in charge of finance, administration and banking services said African governments as well as other stakeholders needed to fight to correct the negative perceptions in order to attract capital into the continent.

According to him, such negative perceptions often did not reflect the true situation in countries concerned, adding that the perceptions should be challenged with positive information about the continent.

The official was speaking at a panel discussion on how to attract foreign investment into Africa in Dubai organized by the Winter School Conference of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Zimbabwe, according to the statement.

According to him, there were perceptions of policy inconsistency, corruption and lack of judicial independence in countries across the continent,

Afreximbank is the foremost Pan-African multilateral financial institution devoted to financing and promoting intra- and extra- African trade.

The Cairo-headquartered bank has provided credit facilities totaling 35 billion U.S. dollars to African business since its inception in 1993.