Reaping huge returns in the opportunity “infested” continent of Africa through Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) may have been hinged on purposeful and patient business strategy, as many multinationals have already been rewarded.

The Lead Partner of EY Africa Business Centre, Mike Lalor, at EY’s consumer products and retail industry forum, titled: “Managing Fragmented Supply Chains in Africa,” said established investors remain overwhelmingly positive about the continent’s prospects.

According to him, a record of top 10 sectors that attracted Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) projects in the continent in 2014, showed that there was a shift towards the manufacturing sector, although with 8.4 per cent year-on-year decline in FDI projects, while technology, media and telecommunications had a share of 19.6 per cent.

The financial sector followed with 18.1 per cent FDI; while retail and consumer products sector got 14.1 per cent, but topped all the sector with 35.5 per cent job creation; and real estate, hospitality and construction industry had eight per percent together.

The FDIs include Vale, $15 to $20 billion; Coca-Cola, $12 billion; Eni, $12 billion; Airtel, $11.2 billion; ICBC, $5,5 billion; Barclays, $4.5 billion; and GE, $3.5 billion.

Others are Gazprom, $2.5 billion; Walmart, $2.4 billion; Diageo, $1.6 billion; IBM, $300 million; and Tata, $100 million.

Coke, which has been in Africa since 1929, has also become the continent’s largest employer, with 65,000 employees and 160 plants and currently sells 9.1 billion litres of beverage yearly in Africa, with reported plans to invest $12 billion in the continent over the next 10 years.

Bharti acquired Zain’s assets across 16 African countries for $10.7b in 2010 and in 2011 alone, it invested more than $500 million into African operations, with revenues from Africa above $1 billion per quarter as at September 2011.

ICBC invested $5.5 billion for a 20 per cent stake in Africa’s largest bank- Standard Bank, but since then, the two banks have conducted over 100 projects together and value of financing agreements signed by ICBC is over $7 billion.

Barclays purchased a 55 per cent stake in Absa, one of Africa’s largest banks, for $4.5 billion in 2005 and last year, 15 per cent of Barclays’ income was from Africa, as the investment revenues from the continent grew by 17 per cent and pre-tax profit by 55 per cent to £1.1 billion.

GE’s business in Africa has grown from $700 million to $3.6b in revenues in the past few years, while revenues forecast is expected to grow at 10-15 per cent yearly.

It currently has 1500 employees in Africa, including a strategic appointment of Jay Ireland, former GE’s Head of Asset Management as President and CEO of GE Africa, to accelerate the company’s growth in the region.

GE recently signed Memorandum of Understanding with the Nigerian government to participate in a $10 billion power sector upgrade.

Gazprom also, has been scaling up its presence in Africa since making its first commercial African gas discovery in Algeria in 2010.

It is now active in several other African countries, including Libya, Namibia, Angola, Ethiopia and signed a $2.5 billion deal in Nigeria to establish a joint venture with state operated Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to develop, extract and transport gas in the country.

For Diageo, Africa represents its largest emerging market region in terms of net sales, with one in four of Diageo’s worldwide workforce employed in Africa.

IBM has been in Africa for over 50 years, but from 2005-2010, it has invested $300 million in the region, which has now significantly accelerated following the contract to operate Bharti Airtel’s IT operations in 16 African countries, with employees in 20 African countries.