Mauritius, the tiny Indian Ocean country, is on an investment spree in East Africa. The areas that are being focused by Mauritius include banking, insurance, agriculture, telecom, trade as well as the oil and gas sectors. There are sprinklings of investments being channelized to other sectors like retail, real estate and hospitality sectors. According to the Global consultancy firm Binder Dijker Otte (BDO), the island republic has gone up in value chain in ease of doing business.
Kenya has attracted the largest number of investors from Mauritius. The investments topped over US$ $100 million. Financial services and the sugar sector accounted for most of the investments. There have been diplomatic overtures to attract investments. Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta visited Mauritius recently and met Prime Minister Pravind Kumar Jugnauth. Need for private sector investments in the two countries, by reducing the bureaucratic procedures required to set up businesses was seemingly the upshot of the talk.
Significantly, the two countries re-signed the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement. It may be noted that earlier in March this year, a Kenyan High Court ruled the agreement as unconstitutional, citing a failure to conduct due diligence. The treaty provides for exempting the income earned by investors from the two countries from being taxed twice. It is also reported that the Mauritius Union Assurance Company Ltd, the largest listed insurer by market capitalization of $90 million, is working out plans for boosting its Kenyan investment by US$30 million, through the acquisition of a local insurer. The other acquisitions by the islanders’ investors’ include acquisition of Phoenix Trans Africa Holdings, with controlling shares in its subsidiaries in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda and the State Bank of Mauritius Holdings Ltd acquisition of the troubled Kenyan lender Fidelity Commercial Bank through its subsidiary SBM Africa Holdings Ltd.
Mauritius investments are not limited to Kenya alone. In Uganda, Mauritius Telecom Ltd was planning to acquire a majority stake in Uganda Telecom Ltd last year, which is now looking for a suitor upon the failure of the Nigerian telecom giant Taleology Holdings, in its effort to take over the company. In Tanzania is also Mauritius is expanding its footprints. Australia’s General Petroleum Oils and Tools Pty Ltd acquired a 50 percent interest in AAA Drilling Ltd (AAA Mauritius), a wholly owned Mauritian subsidiary of the Australian-based mining and energy company, Intra Energy Corporation. In Rwanda, several Mauritian investors have expressed interest in investing in the country. Recently, Bank of Kigali sold a 30 percent stake in its general insurance business to Swan Insurance of Mauritius.Importantly, Mauritian cybersecurity firm Secure Services (Mauritius) Ltd started operations in Rwanda, targeting insurance companies and other financial institutions.
