By Tosin Sulaiman
JOHANNESBURG, Jan 28 (Reuters) - Foreign direct investmentflows to Africa increased nearly 7 percent to an estimated $56billion last year, nearly a fifth of which went to top recipientSouth Africa, a United Nations report said on Tuesday.
Africa, along with Latin America and the Caribbean, helpeddrive FDI inflows to developing economies to a new high of $759billion in 2013. That was more than half of global FDI, theUnited Nations Conference on Trade and Development said in itslatest Global Investment Trends Monitor.
Sub-Saharan Africa's robust economic growth, which the IMFexpects to increase to 6.1 percent in 2014, from 5.1 percentlast year, has made it an attractive destination for investors.
South Africa's performance has lagged the rest of theregion, however, with the IMF forecasting growth of 2.8 percentin the continent's biggest economy this year, an increase from1.8 percent in 2013.
Investors have also been unnerved by recurrent labourunrest, most recently a platinum mining strike that began onThursday which has hit half of global output of the preciousmetal.
Despite these woes, FDI inflows to South Africa more thandoubled to $10.3 billion in 2013, UNCTAD said, while otherAfrican countries like Nigeria and Ghana saw a decline ininvestment.
Most of the rise in FDI flows to South Africa was due togreenfield, or new investment, particularly in the consumergoods sector, said Masataka Fujita, head of UNCTAD's investmenttrends and issues branch.
Mozambique, where companies like Brazil's Vale,London-listed Rio Tinto and Italy's Eni aredeveloping huge offshore gas and coal deposits, was anotherstrong performer, attracting inflows of $7.1 billion, up morethan 30 percent from a year ago.
Inflows to Africa's top crude oil producer Nigeria declinedabout 20 percent to $5.5 billion, the report said, largely dueto asset sales by foreign oil companies such as Royal DutchShell and Chevron.
