The UAE government, private enterprises are going to increase the investment in the African continent in following years as Africa prepares to roll out the pan-African treaty, said by Saif Malik, co-head of Africa and Middle East banking business at Standard Chartered.

Traditionally the country looked for investing in Asia and Europe but now focuses its attention to invest sharply in Africa for the next few years. The Standard Chartered has seen an increase in the capital flow to Africa and expects to continue the momentum in 2020 based on discussion with clients in Africa as well as UAE, said by Malik.

With a population of 1.3 billion, Africa is home to some of the major economies in the world such as South Africa, Gabon, Congo, Ethiopia, Algeria, Nigeria, and Nigeria. The forecasted growth in the African economy is around 4 percent this year and 4.1 percent in 2020, which is slower than China and India but faster than most of the emerging economies of the world, according to a report by the African Development Bank.

To speed up the growth, the continent took major decisions to facilitate intra-Africa trade such as Single African Air Transport Market and East Africa Community, but the prominent change is the acceptance of African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which will revolutionize the intra-trade by allowing free movement of goods and services across the continent once it’s fully operational.

Africa offers investment opportunities in the various sectors as they’re modernizing the infrastructure. Constructions, Energy, Agriculture, Education, Logistics and Retail are the most promising of all with a vast gape of required investment. Most of the countries also putting investment in the development of oil and gas infrastructure.