In the African Hotel Report 2015, released at the African Hotel Investment Forum in Addis Ababa, the top ten opportunities for investors keen to development hotels in Africa were revealed.

In West Africa, Nigeria presents the biggest opportunity, with the strongest economy on the continent matched with only 34 branded hotel bedrooms per 1m population. To set this into context, this compares with 6,754 branded hotel bedrooms per 1m population in North America and 2,432 bedrooms per 1m in Europe. Ghana with 59 bedrooms and Cote D’Ivoire with 61 bedrooms also present great opportunities with very strong demand. 

According to the report, the best opportunities in East Africa include Ethiopia (9 bedrooms/million) Rwanda (29) and Tanzania (63), whilst Angola (48), Mozambique (79) and Zambia (122) present the lowest supply in southern Africa.  

There is also real under supply in central Africa but, although great development potential exists in the region, the political and economic risks tend to suggest that new international investment will be limited in the immediate future.

North Africa has traditionally had the greatest level of development, although even here opportunities exist: Algeria is relatively under-developed, with only 110 bedrooms per 1m.