East-Africa is entering an important phase of its development. The region is attracting greater attention from investors because of its economic growth, expanding consumer markets and continued demand for infrastructure, energy, technology and business financing. According to the Afri-can Development Bank, East Africa remained Africa’s fastest-growing region in 2025, recording real GDP growth of 6.4%, supported by strong performances in economies such as Ethiopia, Rwanda and Uganda. However, eco-nomic potential alone does not guarantee in-vestment. Businesses entering new markets must consider how their investments will be structured, financed and managed, as well as the regulatory and governance requirements across different jurisdictions. This is where the relationship with Mauritius becomes of para-mount importance.
Mauritius has built considerable experience in cross-border investment structuring, fund administration, corporate governance and other professional services. It can pro-vide international investors with a familiar and credible platform through which to ap-proach opportunities in East Africa. Kenya and Tanzania are already identified among the priority markets under Mauritius’s Africa Strategy, demonstrating that the relationship is not merely theoretical.
At the same time, the corridor should not be viewed as a one-way route through which capital simply passes. There is an opportunity to develop a broader partnership involving trade, expertise, technology, professional services and direct business collaboration. IBL Group’s expansion into Kenya illustrates what this can look like in practice. Through its majority participation in Naivas, Kenya’s leading supermarket chain, the Mauritian group has built a significant operating presence in the region, demonstrating how Mauritian businesses can combine capital, sector expertise and local partnerships to pursue long-term growth in East Africa.
Its growing importance therefore comes from the complementary strengths of both regions: East Africa offers scale, demand and investment opportunities, while Mauritius offers experience, connectivity and the structures needed to help businesses and capital move across borders with greater confidence.
As a proven and tested jurisdiction with over 30 years of existence, Mauritius can serve as a practical bridge between inter-national capital and East African opportunity. Its value lies not simply in providing a jurisdiction through which investments can be structured, but in offering the governance, administration and professional expertise needed to support investors throughout the life cycle of an investment.
For businesses entering East Africa, one of the main challenges is navigating multiple legal, regulatory and commercial environ-ments. Mauritius can help by providing a stable platform from which regional invest-ments, holding structures, funds and joint ventures can be established and admin-istered. Its network of corporate service pro-viders, fund administrators, banks, legal ad-visers and tax professionals gives investors confidence and access to the specialist sup-port required for cross-border transactions. Mauritius can also assist businesses seeking to expand beyond a single East Afri-can market. A company entering Kenya, Tan-zania or another regional economy may ulti-mately want to operate across several countries. By using Mauritius as a regional hub for structuring and coordination, busi-nesses can introduce stronger governance, consolidate oversight and manage relation-ships with investors and financial institutions more effectively in a stable and business-friendly environment.
However, Mauritius’s role should go bey-ond administration. It should also help con-nect investors with credible local partners, projects and market intelligence. Stronger collaboration between Mauritian institutions and East African banks, investment agencies, professional firms and businesses would make the corridor more commercially viable.
I would resist the usual list. The more useful observation is that the composition of capital entering East Africa is changing, and that tells you more than any sector ranking. According to the 2025 East Africa Private Capital Activity Report, East Africa attracted USD 4.1 billion across close to 500 private capital deals between 2021 and 2025. The report also notes that deal value increased by 75% year on year in 2025 to USD 1.2 billion, making East Africa the continent’s sec-ond-largest private capital market by value. The report further highlights renewable energy as a
major contributor to this activity, with three integrated solar transactions valued at more than USD 100
million each accounting for approximately 55% of the re-gion’s total deal value.Energy is the headline, and it will remain so, the generation gap is real and the assets are bankable.
But the more significant trend is how deals are being financed. Private debt made up more than a third of Africa’s transactions in 2025, concentrated in agribusiness, financial services and energy value chains. Investors are moving toward structured lending where equity is difficult to price or exit. That is a maturing market, not a retreating one. Where does that leave sectors? Financial services remain fundamental because credit and payment infrastructure enable growth across the wider economy. Within this, fintech is likely to remain particularly important. Sub
Saharan Africa continues to lead the world in mobile-money adoption. The GSMA State of the Industry Report on Mobile Money 2026 shows that 40% of adults in the region held a mobile-money account in 2024, up from 27% in 2021. This provides a strong founda-tion for further innovation in digital payments, lending, insurance, remittances and services for SMEs and previously underserved cus-tomers.
Energy and its supporting infrastructure also remain important areas of opportunity. AFC & AECP data indicates that the USD 10–49 million agribusiness mid-market segment has doubled over the past three years to ap-proximately USD 400 million, with an increas-ing share of funding being provided through debt rather than equity.
The constraint is honest and worth stating: tax fragmentation and foreign exchange restrictions across member states remain binding limits on fund structuring and capital repatriation.
The first priority is to move from broad ambition to practical collaboration. Busi-nesses and investors need clearer pathways for identifying opportunities, assessing local partners and entering East African markets with a long-term perspective. This requires stronger commercial relationships between Mauritian institutions and East African banks, investment agencies, professional firms and private-sector networks.
Businesses should also avoid treating East Africa as a single market. Each country has its own regulatory environment, com-mercial culture and sector priorities. Success-ful expansion will therefore depend on local knowledge, credible partnerships and a re-gional strategy that can be adapted from one market to another. Strong governance, compliance and risk-management frame-works must be established from the outset rather than introduced only after a business begins to grow.
Investors, meanwhile, should look bey-ond short-term returns and consider sectors that require patient capital, including infras-tructure, renewable energy, agriculture, tech-nology, healthcare and financial inclusion. Blended finance, impact investment and pub-lic-private partnerships could all play an im-portant role in making viable projects more attractive to international capital.
Policymakers have an equally important responsibility. They must continue improving regulatory certainty, cross-border payment systems, investment protection and the movement of capital, services and expertise. Greater alignment between Mauritius and East African markets would reduce friction and make the corridor easier to use in prac-tice.
By 2035, the corridor’s success will ulti-mately depend on execution. Mauritius and East Africa already possess complementary strengths, but these must be supported by deeper institutional cooperation, stronger business relationships and a shared commit-ment to turning investment opportunities into sustainable economic activity.
Nousrath Bhugeloo is the Executive Chairperson of Nexus Global Financial Services Limited. She has over 20 years of experience in corporate services.
She is a business leader with recognised expertise in advising multinationals, funds, family offices and individual entrepreneurs on their value enhancing strategy and cross border business. Nousrath sits on the board of a number of companies and funds active in Africa. In a previous position, she spearheaded the growth strategy at ABAX, which was acquired by Ocorian in 2018. Pursuing an Africa-focused strategy, she was instrumental in the expansion and growth of the Africa-led business of the firm. She is an Associate Member of the Chartered Governance Institute and holds an Executive MBA from Essex Business School. She is an active member of women-in-business networks.
