South Africa, the largest economy in Africa, is eager for elevation to the coveted BRIC status of emerging markets, but investors say Nigeria is a more probable African contender, even if promotion for either is some way off. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, at last month's G20 meeting in South Korea, said South Africa had "applied" to join the four-member BRIC grouping of fast-growing emerging economies -- Brazil, Russia, India and China.

Turkey, Mexico and Indonesia are typically the countries investors eye as an addition to the BRICs, which have grabbed an outsize slice of emerging market investment in recent years due to their scale, growth and impact on the global economy.

But resource-rich Africa, boasting some of the fastest-growing countries in the world, has become a focus for investors looking for high returns over a longer timeframe.

Investment flows into Nigeria are tiny compared with South Africa. Nigeria saw equity fund flows of just $216 million for the first 10 months of this year, compared with $3.4 billion for South Africa, according to fund tracker EPFR.