When the research underlying this book began, it was generally believed that private flows to Africa were insignificant. Yet senior African government officials from 14 African countries, especially South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe, were telling a different story. They knew that a surge of flows to emerging markets, and the liberalisation of their economies, were prompting unprecedented inflows of private capital.

Since international data sets were not tracking the increase in private flows to Africa, research was undertaken to collect local data and analyse the locally-driven causes of these flows. In addition, more than 150 interviews with major providers of private capital in the UK and Africa, as well as international experts in the IMF, World Bank, UNCTAD and Commonwealth Secretariat and senior academics, have helped to identify the "supply" side factors -- international trends and perceptions of Africa -- which have a major influence on these flows.

This book presents the facts on the scale and composition of private capital flows to Africa and the difficulties in monitoring them, looks at what motivates people to invest, focuses on the macroeconomic impact and policy implications of capital flows, and identifies measures which will help African governments to attract more development-oriented private flows.

This first systematic analysis of the recent African experience with private capital flows provides a rich source of new ideas for rapid policy responses by national and international policymakers.