The Africa Investment Promotion Agency Network (AfrIPANet) was established in response to the challenges facing African investment promotion agencies (IPAs) in realising their mandates as the primary national institutions which promote and facilitate investments. These agencies have been established over the last several years in conjuction with other reform programmes in an effort to address the investment climate constraints in Africa. 

There were unrealistically high expectations that the newly created IPAs would swiftly prevail over the government and market failures hindering the flow of FDI into Africa. Lack of adequate information and insufficient capacities undermine IPAs' lobbying powers in influencing government policies as well as their efforts in developing and promoting investor targeting strategies.

AfrIPANet reaches out to the needs of the IPAs in providing information on characteristics of investors that operate in the countries'economies. For the inaugural meeting of the Network in November 2001, a pilot survey of foreign investors was conducted to provide inputs to the discussions regarding what kinds of investors come to sub-Saharan Africa, what their expectations were, what their experiences have been and what their predictions regarding growth and future investment are.  The results of this pilot survey covering Ethiopia, Nigeria, Uganda, and the United Republic of Tanzania entitled "Foreign Direct Investor Perceptions in Sub-Saharan Africa" were summarized for presentation and possible uses of the information for developing promotion activities were discussed. The 10 member IPAs unanimously recommended that the survey should be conducted for all member countries on a regular basis. Broadening the scope of the study would provide high quality information on the factors that currently facilitate and encourage FDI flows (as well as those that constrain and discourage it) to the region and allow the IPAs to design more focused strategies.