The African Diaspora Investment Symposium in Silicon Valley brought together Africans, African diaspora and venture capitalists to focus on how best to invest in Africa.

The continent has been increasingly gaining attention, particularly for China. It's the third largest destination for Chinese investment behind Asia and Europe.

At the event, James Newlands, the Northeast Region Trade Leader for Ernst and Young, showed some interesting statistics.

Despite weak growth, foreign direct investment (FDI) projects in Africa increased by six percent in 2017.

These are private investment projects as opposed to projects started by foreign governments.

For the first time ever South Africa had to share the top spot for FDI projects with Morocco. 

But it was Ethiopia that showed the most significant growth, with the number of FDI projects rising from 18 to 62 – a 288-percent increase.

As for where the FDI projects were coming from, the U.S. topped the list, followed by the UK, France, China and Germany.

And topping the list for the sectors receiving the most investment is RHC – which stands for real estate, hospitality and construction. That sector showed an increase of 133 percent in 2017. 

Surprisingly, the sector that dropped the most is TMT – which stands for technology, media entertainment and telecom. That dropped by 43 percent.

But many investors, who spoke to CGTN, like Twum Jin, a former Google engineer, believe as infrastructure develops in Africa, there will be huge growth in the financial tech sector.

“In the next five years what we should expect is that delivery is easier, transportation is easier, addressable homes are easier, addressable businesses are easier and that facilitates that e-commerce ecosystem that we enjoy in more developed markets,” said Jin.

Entrepreneur and investor Duncan Goldie-Scot said that although the startup scene in Africa is exploding, it still gets less than one percent of the amount of funding that startups receive in Silicon Valley.

Goldie-Scot has founded numerous startup projects, including a platform to link bitcoin to mobile money in Africa to a microfinance bank in Kenya that's completely cashless.

“If you are willing to persist and figure out how to get it right, there is very little competition because you're starting from such a low base. If you can grab market share, then the returns you can make are fabulous compared to investing in the U.S.,” said Goldie-Scot.

That is precisely why the symposium is taking place in Silicon Valley.

Almaz Negash, the founder of the African Diaspora Network says one key goal of the symposium is to bring together the understanding that Africans and African diaspora have about their homeland and connect them to venture capitalists who have the funding and knowledge to make projects happen. 

“Silicon Valley in itself is almost about 89 percent of the VC investment – is pretty much flowing from here, maybe more. But at least that's the number that was given to us. But then Africa is less than one percent so the venture funding in Africa is not as much and there's always that notion I don't think Africa is ready to take that on. I think it's not true, it is ready, ready for everybody doesn't mean you have to put a billion dollars. You could actually make that continent ready by putting a million. It depends what you are investing on, who you are investing it to," Negash said.

"So there's a sector, individuals they are investing toward the community or the market itself. That's actually a very small portion of anything that happens in the VC sector taking place. So [it is] very, very nascent in terms of venture investing in Africa. But it's just picking up. And our goal is really can we change that, and can we really work with Silicon Valley venture capitalist, or people who have access to funding, to do pure investment but also maybe enterprise development and social investment,” Negash added.