As political calm starts to settle in Libya, the country’s sovereign wealth fund is repositioning itself across Africa, reshaping its investment playbook to focus on high-yield, growth-driven sectors in a bid to reignite its economic influence.
Second Eye Africa
Amid a fragile but promising calm, Libya is reactivating its sovereign wealth strategy, reengaging with a broad African investment portfolio that had been left dormant through years of political chaos.
With civil unrest having frozen the operations of the $67 billion Libyan Investment Authority (LIA) for years, a slow recovery is now allowing the fund to breathe new life into assets long-held across the continent.
Spearheading this revival is the Libyan African Investment Company (Laico), a key LIA subsidiary, which has begun trimming underperformers while revamping core holdings in pursuit of profitability.
Laico is now actively courting international partners to revive its once-dominant presence in sectors like hospitality, energy, and telecommunications—pillars of Libya’s former economic outreach.
Its newly updated digital presence outlines plans to “apply next-generation technologies to optimise operations” and “promote sustainable development.”
That includes updating assets from the Gaddafi era and chasing growth in emerging areas such as agritech and clean energy.
“Laico is engaged in a strategic overhaul, aimed at boosting the value of high-performing holdings while offloading unproductive ones,” it notes.
The strategy is increasingly reminiscent of Gulf-style investment diplomacy, with Tripoli taking cues from regional heavyweights like Saudi Arabia and Qatar to pivot from oil dependency to diversified growth.
The LIA, long hamstrung by sanctions and internal conflict, is most widely recognised for its historical equity in landmark infrastructure ventures—including Kenya’s Ola Energy and Johannesburg’s iconic Michelangelo Hotel.
Its recent moves, however, suggest a sharpened business instinct, following a more commercially focused model akin to those of Gulf sovereign funds seeking regional influence through capital deployment.
A more stable government in Tripoli is creating room to re-enter key markets, especially in hospitality and tourism, where Libya retains substantial equity.
In a bold move, Laico’s Ensemble Hotel Holdings has gone to court in South Africa, seeking to force the sale of Legacy Hotels—a luxury brand with 19 properties—positioning Libya for its most aggressive post-sanctions acquisition yet.
That ambition dovetails with the broader repositioning of Ola Energy (formerly OilLibya), which now operates 3,000+ fuel outlets in 17 countries spanning North, West, Central and East Africa—putting it head-to-head with giants like TotalEnergies and Shell.
Laico’s diversified portfolio spans 27 African nations, managing 20 hotels and two resorts offering more than 3,500 rooms.
Meanwhile, a US$300 million oil pipeline in Uganda—frozen for over a decade due to contract disputes—is seeing renewed momentum as diplomatic relations improve.
The company’s website underscores a shift in revenue strategy: “We are expanding beyond hospitality to reduce exposure and tap into high-growth areas like agriculture, fintech, and clean energy.”
This push is powered by the extensive African footprint Libya established under Gaddafi’s pan-African investment strategy.
Examples abound: Laico helped fund Chad’s Kempinski N’Djamena hotel and telecom operator SOTEL. In Mali, the long-paused Malibya agribusiness project—spanning 100,000 hectares—is being cautiously revived.
In Guinea-Bissau, Libya has four cashew processing plants and a luxury hotel. In Gabon, it owns a controlling 52% share in Africa N°1, a Pan-African radio station with an audience of 20 million.
Zimbabwe’s CBZ Bank counts Libya Foreign Bank as a 14% shareholder. In Niger, Libya backs major hotels and religious infrastructure. In Rwanda, following the 2011 collapse of Rwandatel, Laico has pivoted to investing in data centres.
Laico describes its approach as “capitalising on its broad African presence to uncover trade and business prospects.”
Among newer ventures is a push to draw investors into Rascom Star-Qaf, a satellite firm delivering telecom and broadband across the continent.
In Mozambique, Laico’s subsidiary Lap Ubuntu.SA runs a 20,000-hectare rice and milling project aimed at enhancing food production and rural livelihoods.
To shed its outdated image, Laico has polished its investor pitch. The company now promotes blockchain-traced supply chains and AI-integrated dashboards to appeal to innovation-focused markets in Lagos and Cape Town.
In Senegal and Tanzania, Ola Energy is trialling solar-powered microgrids. The Laico Regency Hotel in Nairobi, acquired in 2008, has become a nerve centre for regional deal-making.
Still, Libya’s resurgence is not without obstacles. The country’s internal divisions—particularly the ongoing tug-of-war between Tripoli and the eastern factions—continue to cloud investor confidence.
“There’s a real concern that the sudden deal activity may be driven by short-term brokerage interests rather than a coherent long-term strategy,” warns Aly-Khan Satchu, a financial analyst based in Nairobi.
Even so, Satchu sees the LIA as a heavyweight contender: “They have deep financial reserves. Optimising the portfolio is long overdue, and if executed properly, Libya could easily reclaim its stature as a top-tier investor across the continent.”
Cross-border risks linger, with Uganda’s pipeline contract dispute serving as a cautionary tale. But the LIA is pressing ahead, riding on the back of Africa’s forecasted 4% economic expansion this year.
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