Global gas giant Qatar has pledged to invest US$103 billion in Africa in the coming years, joining Gulf neighbours the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia as the continent’s biggest financiers amid waning interest from the West and China.
Six sub-Saharan African countries are set to benefit from agreements signed during the second half of last month with Al-Mansour Holdings, a conglomerate owned by a branch of Qatar’s ruling al-Thani dynasty.
Key critical metals producer the Democratic Republic of Congo has been promised US$21 billion of investment by the Doha-based firm, with US$20 billion designated for Mozambique, which will soon join Qatar as an exporter of liquefied natural gas.
Minerals-rich Zambia and Zimbabwe are each set to receive US$19 billion in Qatari capital, while US$12 billion apiece has been allocated for Botswana and Burundi.
Qatari investors “see plenty of value in African countries and markets”, said Robert Mognielicki, a senior resident scholar of the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington.
Historically, he said there had been a “good deal of engagement’ by Gulf Arab monarchies in the Horn of Africa region, focusing on food security, ports and geopolitical dynamics. “But there is broader and growing interest in other sectors, with lots of Gulf engagement in the mining and critical minerals space.”
