By CRDEA Policy Team
There is a paradox at the centre of the diaspora’s return narrative. Millions of descendants of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, people who carry an ancestral claim to the African continent, are making the rational, financially defensible decision to direct their capital, skills, and businesses toward Southeast Asia instead.
The explanation has less to do with sentiment toward Africa than with the cost of entry. Current investment thresholds across much of Sub-Saharan Africa place formal residency and business establishment out of reach for the diaspora entrepreneurs most likely to return.
This post sets out CRDEA’s estimate of what these diaspora investment barriers cost the continent each year, and frames the gap as a matter of policy design that structured reform can address.
Who We Are Talking About
The relevant population is not the full African diaspora broadly defined. It is specifically descendants of the Transatlantic Slave Trade: Black American, Black Canadian, Black British, and Black Caribbean populations living in high-income countries, who represent one of the most economically significant returnee and investor classes Sub-Saharan Africa has not yet fully engaged.
By any measure, this is a substantial economic force:
- Black Americans: approximately 42 million people, with a collective buying power approaching $2.1 trillion by 2026, roughly 3.12 million Black-owned businesses generating $206 billion in annual revenue, and an entrepreneurial base numbering an estimated 5 million.
- Black Canadians: approximately 1.6 million.
- Black British: approximately 2.5 million.
- Black Caribbean (in North America and UK): an additional 7-8 million.
The engaged and relocation-minded segment of this population, those who have seriously considered building or moving abroad, is conservatively estimated at 1-3% of the total: between 550,000 and 1.6 million people who sit at the intersection of economic capacity and ancestral connection to Africa.
These are not hypothetical investors. Ghana’s Year of Return demonstrated the scale even a single coordinated initiative can generate.
What Ghana Proved, and What It Left on the Table
In 2019, Ghana’s Year of Return initiative generated $1.9 billion in economic activity from approximately 760,000 diaspora visitors, the result of a coordinated, year-long campaign targeting descendants of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. President Akufo-Addo reported over 200,000 additional arrivals directly attributable to the initiative. Per-tourist spending reached $2,589, up from $1,862 in 2017.
That result reflects a tourism floor: a single country, a single year, a campaign that cost $3.5 million to run.
The multiplier from business formation and property investment, from diaspora members who stay and build rather than visit, would likely be considerably larger. Yet the barriers that prevent diaspora descendants from establishing themselves in Sub-Saharan Africa on a longer-term basis remain largely in place.
CRDEA · POLICY ANALYSIS
Estimated annual economic loss to Sub-Saharan Africa
TAST diaspora capital diverted to Southeast Asia – conservative midpoint estimates (USD)
Estimating the Annual Economic Gap
CRDEA has modelled the annual economic gap for Sub-Saharan Africa across four categories of activity currently flowing to Southeast Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America instead:
1. Heritage and Diaspora Tourism: $3B-$6B annually
Ghana’s Year of Return calibrates the minimum. Diaspora descendants who would otherwise make their first or repeat heritage trips to Accra, Nairobi, Lagos, or Lusaka are instead routing first visits to Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, or Tbilisi: destinations with lower visa friction, lower accommodation costs, and none of the entry barriers associated with investment thresholds.
2. Business Formation Capital: $300M-$1.5B annually
There are an estimated 5 million Black entrepreneurs in the United States alone. Even if 0.2% of that pool, 10,000 entrepreneurs, establishes a second business or primary operation abroad each year, the capital differential is significant. Average initial business investment in the $30,000-$150,000 range means $300M-$1.5B per annual cohort is directed elsewhere before a single shipment is made.
3. Local Consumer Economy: $750M-$1.5B annually
A relocating diaspora entrepreneur living in Phnom Penh or Da Nang spends $15,000-$30,000 per year locally. Fifty thousand such people, a conservative estimate given the documented scale of Black expat communities in Southeast Asia, represent $750M-$1.5B per year in consumer spending that Nairobi, Accra, and Dar es Salaam do not currently see.
4. Real Estate and Property Investment: $500M-$2B annually
Diaspora property investment is one of the most documented economic contributions of returnee communities globally. Average diaspora property purchases in the $50,000-$300,000 range, at 5,000-10,000 transactions per year currently routed to Southeast Asia, represent $500M-$2B in redirected real estate capital: capital that would otherwise support construction jobs, mortgage markets, and community development.
Conservative annual total: $4.5B-$11B.
Across a ten-year horizon, with compounding investment activity: an estimated $60-$150 billion in cumulative economic potential not yet realized by Sub-Saharan Africa.
The Diaspora Investment Barriers Are Not Imaginary
Business formation cost comparison · CRDEA
Why diaspora entrepreneurs go east
Minimum capital + registration cost to establish a 100% foreign-owned business
Sub-Saharan Africa
Kenya (Class G Investor Permit)
$100,000+
minimum capital required
Botswana (BITC foreign threshold)
$500,000
minimum stated to diaspora investors
Sub-Saharan remittance cost (avg)
7.73%
per $200 sent – highest region globally
Southeast Asia
Cambodia (100% foreign SMLLC)
~$500
total setup, no minimum capital
Vietnam (foreign-owned LLC)
~$800-1,200
total setup, minimal capital threshold
Thailand (Elite Visa / company)
~$2,000
10-year residency, streamlined setup
Sources: Kenya Immigration Dept · BITC · Cambodia Ministry of Commerce · CRDEA research · World Bank (2024) · U.S. Congress H.R.4586 AIDA Act
These figures are not the result of insufficient interest in Africa. Survey data on Black Americans, particularly since 2020, shows a marked increase in openness to relocation and business formation abroad. What drives the gap is a specific, addressable policy environment.
Kenya: The Class G Investor Permit has historically required foreign investors, including diaspora descendants, to demonstrate capital of $100,000 or more. A diaspora entrepreneur with a six-figure business plan and ancestral ties to East Africa is evaluated under the same threshold as a large multinational investor, with no distinction made for scale.
Botswana: In direct outreach by CRDEA, the Botswana Investment and Trade Centre cited a USD $500,000 minimum threshold for foreign business establishment, placing the country largely out of reach for the entrepreneurial middle class that forms much of diaspora investment activity.
Sub-Saharan Africa (broad): Remains among the most expensive regions in the world for sending remittances, averaging 7.73% to send $200 in Q1 2024, compared to 5.97% for Latin America and the Caribbean.
Compare this to:
Cambodia: A 100% foreign-owned Single Member LLC can be registered for approximately $500 with no minimum capital requirement, in a matter of weeks.
Vietnam: Foreign business registration is available in multiple structures with minimal capital thresholds and a straightforward permit pathway for entrepreneurs.
Thailand: Long-term visa programs including the Thailand Elite Visa offer ten-year residence for a one-time fee.
This capital gap is best explained by accessibility rather than sentiment. Southeast Asian markets have positioned themselves among the most accessible in the world for internationally mobile entrepreneurs; current thresholds across much of Sub-Saharan Africa have not yet reached the same standard.
CRDEA’s Recommended Reforms
Addressing these barriers is a matter of targeted policy design rather than broad structural reform. CRDEA proposes that African governments consider a single categorical distinction: diaspora descendants of the Transatlantic Slave Trade warrant a different investment classification than foreign nationals with no ancestral connection to the continent.
This population carries cultural, ancestral, and historical ties to the continent that predate the modern investor-classification frameworks now applied to them. Applying thresholds designed for large-scale multinational capital may work against the goal of encouraging broad-based, SME-level diaspora participation.
CRDEA’s policy position advocates for:
- A dedicated diaspora investor classification in national law, distinct from general foreign investor categories, with reduced or adjusted minimum capital requirements.
- Harmonisation across the African Union of a streamlined diaspora right-of-establishment framework, building on the African Union’s existing recognition of the Diaspora as the Sixth Region.
- Reduction of Sub-Saharan Africa remittance costs toward the global average (currently 5.3%), consistent with UN Sustainable Development Goal 10.c.
- Continued direct engagement with national governments: CRDEA has submitted policy proposals, including its ADSII framework, to Kenya, Botswana, and other nations for consideration of reduced permit thresholds for diaspora descendants.
Ghana’s pending legislation to eliminate minimum capital requirements for foreign-owned businesses represents a meaningful step forward. Continued review of Kenya’s Class G Investor Permit thresholds would represent a similar opportunity. These reforms reflect sound economic policy: aligning investment thresholds with the realities of SME-scale diaspora participation, rather than treating all foreign capital as a single undifferentiated category.
This capital gap reflects a policy choice, and CRDEA believes it is one that can be addressed through structured, government-led reform.
What does TAST stand for?
TAST stands for the Transatlantic Slave Trade. It refers to the historical forced displacement of Africans that produced today’s Black American, Black Canadian, Black British, and Black Caribbean populations, the diaspora communities most directly tied to the continent by ancestry and history.
Is a descendant of the Transatlantic Slave Trade the same as any member of the African diaspora?
No. “African diaspora” is a broader term that also covers recent African emigrants and their children. Descendants of the Transatlantic Slave Trade are specifically the population separated from the continent generations ago through that trade, which is why CRDEA advocates for a distinct policy classification rather than grouping them with general foreign investors.
How did CRDEA arrive at the $60 billion estimate?
It is a ten-year projection built from a conservative annual range of $4.5B-$11B, modelled across four categories: heritage tourism, business formation capital, local consumer spending, and property investment. The full breakdown is above under “Estimating the Annual Economic Gap.”
Is this the same money as the remittances Africa already receives?
No. Remittances, an estimated $56B a year to Sub-Saharan Africa, are mostly family transfers: school fees, medical bills, household support. The capital discussed here is investment capital that diaspora descendants would put into starting businesses, buying property, and relocating, currently directed to Southeast Asia instead because of entry barriers.
Why is it less costly to start a business in Southeast Asia than in Sub-Saharan Africa?
Countries like Cambodia and Vietnam allow 100% foreign-owned business registration for a few hundred dollars with no minimum capital requirement. Kenya’s Class G Investor Permit has historically required $100,000+, and Botswana has cited a $500,000 threshold in direct outreach to CRDEA. The full comparison is above under “The Diaspora Investment Barriers Are Not Imaginary.”
What does CRDEA propose to African governments?
CRDEA proposes four measures: a dedicated diaspora investor classification with adjusted capital requirements, a harmonised Sixth Region right-of-establishment framework across the African Union, reduced remittance costs aligned with UN targets, and continued direct engagement with national governments on permit reform.
The Coalition for the Repatriation of Descendants of Enslaved Africans (CRDEA) advocates for formal immigration pathways and permanent residency for the diaspora returning to the continent. Our objective is to integrate diaspora human capital, investment, and expertise with continental resources to drive sustainable economic empowerment and Pan-African development.
Sources: Ghana Tourism Authority via Graphic Online (2019); African Development Bank Diaspora Forum; World Bank Remittance Prices Worldwide; U.S. Congress H.R.4586, AIDA Act (119th Congress); Nielsen “Engaging Black Audiences” Report (2025); U.S. Census Bureau, Black History Month Facts for Features (2021).
