Turmoil in Tunisia? Conflict in Mali? Fraught elections in Kenya? Investment in Africa is thriving regardless.

African investment funds have grown nearly five times in value in the past six years and are attracting new forms of capital, from local pension money to sovereign wealth funds.

Conflicts are still making the news and corruption remains a concern. Elections in Kenya next month and a probable vote in Zimbabwe in July are also stoking unease.

But investors have worked out that economies and markets vary widely in this large continent, and that businesses can carry on through difficult political times.

They are also looking beyond the region's natural resources.

Favored investment plays now include banking stocks, particularly in Nigeria, with demand seen for financial services from a growing middle class. Telecoms, pharmaceuticals and breweries are also in demand, while mining stocks remain attractive.

Investors have become more knowledgeable about Africa, and focus more on how, rather than whether, they will commit funds.

"When I was in Europe a few weeks ago, I noticed that people no longer ask so many questions about Africa but more about us," said Sven Richter, head of frontier markets at Renaissance Asset Managers. "They have come to a realization that Africa is not one country - if you heard there was a problem in Slovenia, would you worry about investments in France?"

Equity funds that badge themselves as being focused on Africa held assets of less than $1 billion in 2006, according to Lipper data. That rose to over $3 billion by the end of 2011, and to nearly $5 billion by the end of last year.

That is small compared with over $38 billion in funds labeled Latin American at the end of 2012 but with much stronger growth - a near five-fold increase in six years for Africa funds, versus less than 40 percent growth for Latin American ones.

African equity funds include major names like Templeton and Morgan Stanley as well as Africa specialists such as Investec and Renaissance.

The sum covers funds bunching north Africa and the Middle East or focused mainly on north or south, but excludes those invested mainly in better developed South Africa and the Africa component of many frontier funds.

The economies of Africa, the world's poorest continent, are among the fastest-growing, though it's from a low base, at only a few percent of the world's GDP.

The change is driven by youthful populations coupled with improving mortality rates and an expanding middle class, as well as by exports to richer economies.

Reuters