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Saudi Arabia, UAE Top Gulf Investments in Horn of Africa

The Russian-Ukrainian crisis highlighted the strategic importance of the Horn of Africa region. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
The Russian-Ukrainian crisis highlighted the strategic importance of the Horn of Africa region. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Saudi Arabia, UAE Top Gulf Investments in Horn of Africa

The Russian-Ukrainian crisis highlighted the strategic importance of the Horn of Africa region. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
The Russian-Ukrainian crisis highlighted the strategic importance of the Horn of Africa region. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

A recent study pointed to the growth of Gulf investments in the countries of the Horn of Africa, especially in Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia and Djibouti.

Africa has become an increasingly vital partner for the Gulf states. Investment flows from the Arab Gulf to sub-Saharan Africa amounted to about $3.9 billion between 2005 and 2015, according to recent statistics based on completed projects.

The Russian-Ukrainian crisis highlighted the strategic importance of the Horn of Africa region in terms of its strategic location overlooking the oceans, global trade routes and straits heading from the Gulf states to Europe and the United States.

A recent study issued by the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies on foreign investment in African countries showed that Gulf companies invested more than $1.2 billion in the sub-Saharan African region, from January 2016 to July 2021, with 88 percent of projects coming from the UAE and Saudi Arabia, followed by Qatar and Kuwait.

The study noted that the region enjoyed attractive investment potential, as 44 percent of its agricultural area is still unexploited, in addition to its great livestock and oil wealth.

Saudi Arabia invests about two million hectares in a number of African countries, while a large proportion of the Kingdom’s agricultural projects are concentrated in eastern Africa.

Djibouti, which is located on the Bab al-Mandab strait, has become a logistical hub for agricultural trade movement between Saudi Arabia and East Africa.

Saudi investments in Sudan have also increased, according to the study. The value of joint projects over the last two decades amounted to $35.7 billion, including ongoing projects that are estimated at $15 billion.

In Ethiopia, around 305 Saudi investors obtained licenses in a period of ten years, to implement 141 projects in the field of agricultural and livestock production and 64 other projects in the industrial sector.

According to the study, the UAE is the fourth largest global investor in Africa, after China, Europe and the United States, respectively, and the top Gulf investor in the continent, with investments reaching $25 billion between 2014 and 2018.

Those projects cover airlines, construction and investment funds.

The Abu Dhabi Fund for Development was at the forefront of investment and financing activity in Africa, as it financed more than 66 projects in 28 African states, with a value of $16.6 billion in 2018. The Fund also allocated $50 million to Emirati companies wishing to invest in Chad.

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World Breathes Sigh of Relief as Trump Spares Fed, IMF

US President Donald Trump speaks to members of press onboard Air Force One on a flight to Fiumicino Airport near Rome to attend the funeral of Pope Francis, April 25, 2025. (Reuters)
US President Donald Trump speaks to members of press onboard Air Force One on a flight to Fiumicino Airport near Rome to attend the funeral of Pope Francis, April 25, 2025. (Reuters)
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World Breathes Sigh of Relief as Trump Spares Fed, IMF

US President Donald Trump speaks to members of press onboard Air Force One on a flight to Fiumicino Airport near Rome to attend the funeral of Pope Francis, April 25, 2025. (Reuters)
US President Donald Trump speaks to members of press onboard Air Force One on a flight to Fiumicino Airport near Rome to attend the funeral of Pope Francis, April 25, 2025. (Reuters)

Global policymakers gathering in Washington this week breathed a collective sigh of relief that the US-centric economic order that prevailed for the past 80 years was not collapsing just yet despite Donald Trump's inward-looking approach.

The Spring Meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank were dominated by trade talks, which also brought some de-escalatory statements from Washington about its relations with China.

But some deeper questions hovered over central bankers and finance ministers after Trump's attacks on international institutions and the Federal Reserve: can we still count on the US dollar as the world's safe haven and on the two lenders that have supported the international economic system since the end of World War Two?

Conversations with dozens of policymakers from all over the world revealed generalized relief at Trump’s scaling back his threats to fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell, the guardian of the dollar’s international status whom he had previously described as a "major loser".

And many also saw a silver lining in US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s call to reshape the IMF and World Bank according to Trump's priorities because it implied that the United States was not about to pull out of the two lenders that it helped create at the Bretton Woods conference of 1944.

"This week was one of cautious relief," Austria's central bank governor Robert Holzmann said. "There was a turn (in the US administration's stance) but I fret this may not be the last. I keep my reservations."

A politicization of the Fed and, to a lesser extent, the hollowing out of the IMF and World Bank are almost too much to fathom for most officials.

Deprived of a lender of last resort, some $25 trillion of bonds and loans issued abroad would be called into question.

NO ALTERNATIVE

At the heart of policymakers' concerns is that there is no ready alternative to the United States as the world's financial hegemon - a situation that economists know as the Kindleberger Trap after renowned historian Charles Kindleberger.

To be sure, the euro, a distant-second reserve currency, is gaining popularity in light of the European Union's newly found status as an island of relative stability.

But policymakers who spoke to Reuters were adamant that the European single currency was not ready yet to dethrone the dollar and could at best hope to add a little to its 20% share of the world's reserves.

Of the 20 countries that share the euro only Germany has the credit rating and the size that investors demand from a safe haven.

Some other members are highly indebted and prone to bouts of political and financial turmoil - most recently in France last year - which raise lingering questions about the bloc's long-term viability.

And the euro zone's geographical proximity to Russia - particularly the three Baltic countries that were once part of the Soviet Union - cast an even more sinister shadow.

With Japan now too small and China's heavily managed currency in an even worse position, this left no alternative to the dollar system underpinned by the Fed and the two Bretton Woods institutions.

In fact, the IMF and the World Bank could scarcely survive if their largest shareholder, the United States, pulled out, officials said.

"The US is absolutely crucial for multilateral institutions," Polish Finance Minister Andrzej Domanski told Reuters. "We're happy they remain."

Still, few expected to go back to the old status quo and thorny issues were likely to await, such as widespread dependence on US firms for a number of key services from credit cards to satellites.

But some observers argued that the market turmoil of the past few weeks, which saw US bonds, shares and the currency sell off sharply, might have been a shot in the arm as it forced a change of tack by the administration.

"When President Trump talked about firing Jay Powell, the fact that markets reacted so vigorously to that ended up being a disciplining reality just reminding the administration that, if you cross that line, it could have some very severe implications," said Nathan Sheets, global chief economist at Citi.