Africa attracts $1 billion in fund flows this year

* Net inflows of almost $1 billion to Africa this year

* Strong growth forecasts underpinning investment hopes

By Ed Cropley, African Investment Correspondent

JOHANNESBURG, Aug 3 (Reuters) - Africa has attracted almost $1 billion of net fund inflows this year, a reverse of the panic sell-off that hit the continent's nascent markets at the end of 2008 and early 2009, according to fund trackers EPFR Global.

So far this year, investors have put $990 million into Africa, and last week funds in the so-called 'frontier market' region attracted net inflows for the ninth week out of the previous 12.

"If the current trends hold, the $1 billion mark should be crossed this week," Cameron Brandt, Washington-based EPFR's global markets analyst, said.

The flows are further evidence of the return among some global investors of an appetite for the higher risks and higher yields of developing markets after a flight to the safety of cash and developed country debt towards the end of 2008.

They also underscore the long-term logic of investment in a continent that is home to as much as a third of the world's natural mineral resources, and which is slowly but surely getting its game together.