On November 3, 2022, the third edition of the Africa Investment Forum took place in Abidjan. Financial institutions, multilateral banks, development banks, commercial banks, multinationals, and major groups met to discuss certain factors that worsen the perception of risk and, in particular, demonstrating concrete examples of resilience.

“Building economic resilience through sustainable investments” is the theme around which the third edition of the The Africa Investment Forum (AIF). A crowd of investors came from all over the world to open this annual African investment event launched in 2018 by Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank (ADB). Indeed, discussions have intensified on certain factors that worsen the perception of risk among investors.

So, according to studies, the default rate for infrastructure investments over the past 14 years in Africa is 5.5%. 12.6% in Latin America, 8.8% in Asia, 8.6% in Asia, 8.6% in Eastern Europe, 7.6% in North America and 5.9% in Western Europe. For this reason, according to a Moody's report, Africa is the most profitable in the world in terms of foreign direct investment with a rate of 14% between 2011 and 2016, when the global average is 7.1%. These factors worsen the perception of risk in Africa in the face of such statistics. Also, Africa is generally described as the “riskiest” investment destination. Thus, the African presidents present alongside their Ethiopian counterpart questioned investors about the universality of risk, particularly with reference to the context of the global crisis of the past two years.