Barack Obama is set to announce $14bn of investment by US companies in Africa, as Washington seeks to claw back some of the ground lost recently to China by hosting the first US-Africa summit.
The investments across a range of sectors will include $5bn of commitments between Blackstone, the US private equity group, and the industrial conglomerate of Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest businessman. The money will go towards energy infrastructure proj-ects across sub-Saharan Africa.
General Electric, the US industrial group, will also invest $2bn on the continent, one of several prospective deals linked to the US president’s Power Africa initiative. Launched last year, Power Africa will pool billions of dollars of investment, underpinned by state involvement, towards developing energy supplies on the continent.