Africa is not a new partner for Turkey. The country’s strategy for engagement with the continent was launched in 1998 and began in 2003. Two decades later, economic and diplomatic ties between Turkey and African countries are stronger than ever.
Direct investments by Turkish companies in Africa rose to an all-time high of 23 in 2024, up from 20 in 2023, according to fDi Markets, a tracker of greenfield project announcements. These range from factories for textiles in Egypt to medical devices in Nigeria. Other projects include solar parks in Zambia and Karpowership’s floating $1bn liquified natural gas power plant in Mozambique.
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Turkey’s trade with Africa, including arms exports, have surged too. Total trade volumes surpassed $40.7bn in 2022, up from $5.4bn in 2003, according to data from Turkey’s foreign economic relations board (Deik).
Growing investment ties are significant given Africa has become more reliant on FDI from its own backyard. Turkey was Africa’s eight largest source of greenfield FDI by value in 2024, behind the US and China, but ahead of the likes of Germany, India and Switzerland, fDi Markets data shows. The country’s traditional Eurocentric focus has shifted, with Turkish outward FDI projects higher outside Europe for the first time ever in 2024. Record investment deals were recorded in Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and the Americas too.
Fatih Yücel, an Istanbul-based corporate adviser and member of Deik’s Malaysia-Türkiye business council, says that Turkey “sees outward FDI as a strategic tool” to increase interaction with global value chain stakeholders.
Countries like “Turkey should be expected to interact with the world through commercial and cultural diplomacy channels of Turkish companies instead of waiting for development in the home country” through inward FDI, he says. In Africa specifically, Turkey offers a different proposition to other source markets, given its strategic location and manufacturing base.
“Countries who are looking for a hedge against both the US and China often see Turkish investment as a good way to diversify their pool of foreign investors,” says Ali Ahmadi, director for sanctions and geoeconomics at ReshapeRisks, an advisory firm.
By the end of 2022, Deik data shows that Turkish contracting companies had also completed 1,864 projects in Africa worth more than $85bn. Turkish FDI in Africa targets “not only financial return but also social return”, argues Mr Yücel, given that investments are aimed at “compulsory humanitarian needs” through sectors like textiles and energy.
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The Yunus Emre Institute, a non-profit organisation created by the Turkish government in 2007 with 80 offices globally, has also expanded its presence in Africa to promote the Turkish language, culture and arts. This includes its first Turkish course launched in Bujumbura, the economic capital of Burundi, in 2024.
Middle power push
Global conflicts, tensions between the US and Europe and recent cuts in overseas aid spending by western powers have created room for Turkey to play a bigger role. “Any time there is a crisis, Turkey has taken advantage of the opportunities,” says Natasha Lindstaedt, professor of government at the University of Essex, noting Turkey’s involvement in both the Syrian civil war and Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
“Turkey wants to have a bigger economic, diplomatic footprint. They’re open to trade with whoever,” she says, highlighting that Turkey’s approach is similar to China in the way it is open to co-operate with countries irrespective of their democratic status. This is unlike western powers whose co-operation often comes with “strings attached”, she adds.
After the US and China, Turkey has the most diplomatic outposts of any country, including embassies and consulates, according to the Lowy Institute, an Australia-based think tank. This diplomatic network remains highly Eurocentric, but many new posts are in the Middle East and Africa, where Turkish companies have increased their investments.
Ryan Neelam, director of Lowy’s public opinion and foreign policy programme, says this “reflects Ankara’s ambitions to project itself as a regional and global power in its own right” and “goes hand in glove” with its expanding trade and security linkages in Africa.
“A core function of many embassies and consulates is assisting corporates to expand their presence into foreign markets, understand the local opportunities and navigate local rules,” he explains.
Ankara’s diplomatic push come at a critical moment. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s “growing authoritarianism at home has strained relations with the west”, adds Mr Neelam, “undermining Turkey’s prospects of joining the EU and straining relations with Nato”.