Abstract
Before answering to the question, it should be interesting to define and analyze the question. Firstly, the acronym "TNC" is used in the question. TNC means Trans-national Corporation. According to the United Nations, a trans-national corporation (or a MNE for multi-national enterprise) is " a firm that engages in value added activities in at least two countries". Foreign direct investments are the results of TNCs with inflows and outflows. According to the World Bank, foreign direct investments (FDI) are "the net inflows of investment to acquire a lasting management interest in an enterprise operating in an economy other than that of the investor. Inflows and outflows are listed by countries, or by world regions (Asia, Africa, BRIC, etc.). The trends and figures are analyzed and compared by the UNCTAD (United Nation Conference on trend and development) run by Ban-Ki-Moon, the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
Secondly, the question is targeted on investments in Africa states. In order to well understand the context of the question, a macro-analysis and past history should be done. Africa is composed by 55 independent states and represents 20 % of the total worldwide land area. This is the second largest and populous continent. There are around one billion inhabitants in Africa (from seven billion worldwide). The continent can be divided into several unequal parts such as North (e.g. Algeria, Tunisia), sub-Saharan, South, East and West. All these parts are unequal on many points as for example number of inhabitant, wealth, or equipment. Moreover, Africa is the poorest and least developed continent in the world. This can be explained by its turbulent past. Most of African countries were under the colonial power of European countries. For example, France (in Algeria, Senegal, etc.), Britain (in South-Africa, Egypt, etc.) and other countries had power on colonized countries in the beginning of the twentieth century.
During this time, European countries exploited Africa's sources of raw material. Africa is full of natural resources such as cotton, copper, gold, maize, etc. These resources were bought at very low prices from farmers, then were shipped to home countries (France, Portugal, Great-Britain) and sold at expensive prices. According to Enoch K. Beraho (2005) this stage was the first of three stages on Africa's regional problems with colonizing countries. It started from 1845 and ended in 1995 by the apartheid of South Africa.
