AFRICA CEO FORUM 2026

Added: 2026-05-15

[00:00:00]Whether direct or through equity markets, capital transfer restriction, double taxation, regulatory fragmentation, stock exchange incompatibilities.

[00:00:13]These are policy choices, not economic laws. They can be reversed and they must be reversed.

[00:00:25]Second, Africa's great national enterprises most open their ownership to African savings. African pension fund soft arrangement fund administer hundred of billions of dollar capital exist.

[00:00:40]What is absent is the infrastructure to deploy it across borders into productive enterprises as continental scale. When company list or open trenches to local institutional investors, they retain savings that currently train our continent.

[00:00:58]The exchanges of Kazablanca, Legos, Nairobi, Abijon, Kgali or Joberg have an indispensable role. African savings must finance African growth.

[00:01:10]Thesememes face social obstacle we can no longer set aside. In insufficient equity capital with bank insisting on collateral these enterprises cannot furnish a governance gap as formalization requires deep transformation in management and planning regulatory environment that penalize theme disproportionately and finally the generational transfer of wealth.

[00:01:42]The sudden crisis of African entrepreneurship passed the second or third generation.

[00:01:48]The overwhelming of African family business vanish. This is not merely a family loss. It's an emorology of economic capital, institutional memory and employment that reverberates across the entire community. I direct an ambitious appeal to researcher, sociologist, business school and African international alike. Treat these as a serious domain of inquiry and research.

[00:02:20]The roots are as sociological as they are financial finance family structure, inheritance norms, succession disperts, disputes. These dynamics must be embedded in our business school curriculum curriculara so that the next generation inherits not just enterprises but the capacity to sustain them.

[00:02:47]I want to say that our institution IFC will be transforming. We will be increasing our ability to mobilize international capital and domestic capital to to address all these challenges and the local champion for us at at the heart of our initiative. We have mobilized and invested 14 billion dollar in 2025 in Africa and we will continue doing that and accelerate that path.

[00:03:18]So now let me conclude by saying the following.

[00:03:22]The talent is here. The capital exist.

[00:03:27]The ambition in this room is undeniable.

[00:03:30]What has been missing is execution.

[00:03:33]Execution at scale. The kind of scale that turned energy into factories, factories into jobs, and local enterprises into continental champions.

[00:03:44]This decade must be the one where Africa stop exporting its potential and start delivering its performance. I need three things. First, commitment and concrete.

[00:03:57]Not a letter of intent, not all the memorandum that collects dust in a drawer. An investment decision, a structure partnership, a first disbbursement before the year is out.

[00:04:10]The time for deliberation is behind us.

[00:04:13]The time of action is now.

[00:04:22]Push back on us. Push back on us. Is if I if the institutions that I did is not making it easy enough for you to enter a market, tell us. If our financial structure are too rigid, say so and say it loudly.

[00:04:43]We are here to adapt to your reality, not the other way around. Our value is not being right. Our value is being useful.

[00:04:56]Let's play it on the long game. Emerging market, reward, conviction, and patience. Every investor who has built a durable position in Africa is one who refuse to retreat when volatility struck. So let me say a last sentence before I end. Africa has never lacked potential. It has never lacked vision.

[00:05:19]What has of too often been missing is a collective will to act together. Now without waiting for permission from history that changes today. The ark bands not because the world reads it but because we do.

[00:05:40]Africa is not a frontier market waiting to be discovered. This is the defining growth story of the 21st century. The question is no longer whether Africa can deliver at scale. The question is whether we will have the courage together to rise to the scale this moment demands. Thank you.

[00:06:09]Thank you so much, Makdar. And I have to say, um, you know, engaging with you through these years and a lot of the people that I interview and companies that I interview, um, the big realization is that without the IFC's support, a lot of the projects that we see on the continent would not have happened. So the work that you're doing at the IFC and the IFC as a whole has been such an important part of the African growth story and mobilizing capital and then importantly such a big supporter of the Africa co forum over the years and without you and the IFC a lot of what we see here today would not be possible. So please ladies and gentlemen a round of applause for Makkar job.

[00:06:51]Having you at the helm of the IFC has been an absolute blessing for all of us here in the room. So thank you sir. I am honored now to welcome his excellency the president of Rwanda Paul Kagame. So please join me for a fireside chat.

[00:07:16]Mr. President, an honor. Thank you, sir.

[00:07:19]Please take a seat.

[00:07:22]Fantastic to be back.

[00:07:25]>> You're welcome.

[00:07:26]>> Thank you. Um I always feel very welcome here. Um and it's interesting to come at this time in the world. I mean, we've seen so many cycles, but I have to say possibly nothing like this has ever happened um in the global economy. And I'm wondering how you are looking at not only the short-term trends, the long-term trends, but also we know the old adage within every crisis there's always opportunity and there's a lot of agency on the continent that we haven't seen before. So, how are you weighing things up and and what do you think the moment calls for for the African continent and for you in Rwanda?

[00:08:04]Well, thank you Eleni and welcome to Kari.

[00:08:09]But let me take this opportunity to welcome and thank uh each one of the leaders here, heads of state, vice presidents, prime ministers, senior executives of different industries.

[00:08:33]I want to welcome you to Kari and thank you very much for honoring our invitation and uh being here with us, of course, I want to thank Amir and his team Jenna for having thought of this idea to bring people together in this manner that has been operational for a number of years.

[00:09:02]I want to appreciate the work they are doing and also the comments Amir made earlier which really encapsulate all that we need to say and maybe Bon to do a number of things. So I thank you all for being here. Thank you very much.

[00:09:28]Now back to the question, there will always be crisis.

[00:09:36]I mean you have had centuries of different things happening. We had slave trade. We had colonial times. We had then there are wars. Then there are pandemics. Then there are all kinds of things. They will happen all the time.

[00:09:56]We just it's a matter of time and there are these cycles that so we are in a different cycle now that is driven geopolitically >> and uh we have to contend with that but that also for Africa keeps being a reminder of our position where do we stand in this global positioning and we have had many people contribute ideas and very accurately educating us what we need to do and what we need to be thinking about. But we can't stay there. We need to learn from this. We need to shape what we are doing for ourselves and action should lead us in the right direction and how to deal with this crisis. So but for Africa let me say we have to leverage our competitive advantage and there are number of them.

[00:11:21]So why Is Africa always at a disadvantage?

[00:11:28]When you look back, you see where Africa has been lacking this or that. But really why when we have almost everything if you look at in the area of green energy and the this continent is home to 60% of solar potential 60% is home to that Africa is home to that then if you Look at the critical minerals that talked about the all of them for the majority are on the continent for making batteries and so on and so forth and different powers are fighting over that. But Africa that has a lot of that is silent or losing most of it cheaply to those who have the power and have know what they want to do.

[00:12:46]Look at um human capital. In terms of human capital, Africa has abundance of that. In fact, in whether maybe by now already or in a few years to come, uh, Africa will be having the largest middle class in the world.

[00:13:16]So how can we have these resources and then we are here wondering how to overcome some of the challenges that are brought by the geopolitics that we talk about or the crisis that we see happening in every so we need to come together and do something about it it's doing something about it the rest we know and and air earlier on is talking about what we lose by not doing a a number of things.

[00:13:52]I think we lose a lot more even by not doing what we have to do >> and it's a really important point. It's it's time of action and I have to say um you know when you mentioned pandemics there was a wakeup call and we've seen so much shift and change but you know watching what's been going on with the way African leaders have been approaching bad deals that are getting on their table. I mean Zimbabwe, Zambia um as well as Ghana saying no to mineral deals because it was about extraction in return for healthcare programs and so forth. And frankly, I'm sure a lot of you in the room know that you've been very vocal about the kind of bullying tactics, the cursive tactics that have been used by the West, specifically the US. Um, and at this point in time, we we know that Africa is still being viewed as a place where people can extract, but African leaders are saying no. Also, threats about sanctions consistently, not only against African nations, but other countries. Rwanda yourselves are dealing with US sanctions since March this year with the issue regarding the DRC. Take me through how you're dealing with this new geopolitical tension where there's a belief that might is right and the big can control you know everyone else.

[00:15:17]Well, it's um it's a crisis in a sense, but uh brought about by the same thing Africa not leveraging our capacity, our potential, our you know energy of our the people of our continent is just locked out there.

[00:15:43]And it's a situation where the powers that be are holding a whip in their hands.

[00:15:53]They're using a stick to beat up whoever they want to beat up in order to they no longer even hiding it. It's it's just in the open.

[00:16:03]It's like in the situation you're talking about we have in the region of Congo and the other crisis that also in a way involve Rwanda and other countries in in our region.

[00:16:22]Yeah.

[00:16:24]sanctions one has first of all are they justified and and it is not just in this case of of Rwanda but in other cases sometimes sanctions are just applied uh in a case of uh the one who provides less than the other.

[00:16:50]>> Yes. So it goes in the favor of the highest bidder.

[00:16:56]When somebody knows they will extract more from a certain place, they will be more favorable to that place even if they are the ones in the wrong.

[00:17:06]>> Do you believe that all roads lead to mineral deals? Is that what you're saying?

[00:17:11]>> I mean it is in the open.

[00:17:15]>> I don't I I don't have to say much. And in some cases it to operates like in the very old days really there's a lot of cynicism in this in the old days the kings and so on and so forth used to give their in-laws their children you know powers say go and control something somewhere and that's happening today here.

[00:17:42]>> Yeah.

[00:17:43]>> Yes. they just give somebody say go and get whatever you want to and do whatever you want to do in that region. That is how Africa is treated.

[00:17:56]So these powers you see that come here lecturing people on democracy, human rights and they are doing it in one with one arm and the other they are just taking away everything that people own.

[00:18:11]So and this is what is critical.

[00:18:16]This is why Africa leaders of Africa some of whom are here brothers and the CEOs and other Africans.

[00:18:29]I think we need to give ourselves value of some kind. We can't just be people who are waiting to be ripped off by somebody who is shrewd enough and has the power to come. No, we must be able to say no.

[00:18:46]>> And we've seen those nos. We've seen some of those. I mean, do you believe I mean sanctions are used a cursive me um um method to get countries to capitulate. Are you going to capitulate?

[00:18:59]>> You know, I never capitulated in a situation.

[00:19:03]This is this is not a bad situation as such. Well, it hurts. Absolutely.

[00:19:08]>> Yeah.

[00:19:09]>> And that's what it is meant to do. It means it is meant sanctions or different measures are meant to hurt people. So in a way we are hurt >> but I think we would be hurt more by not doing what we are doing. So it's always you make a calculation.

[00:19:29]Yes. So and it is not so difficult to say no.

[00:19:35]In fact, it costs more to say yes to the wrong thing.

[00:19:40]>> Yeah.

[00:19:40]>> So we we are here. But but all these things come to pass in one form or another. Even those who have been given the gift of messing us up one day they not live long enough to see the gains from exploiting people or doing unjust things. So uh I think each one of us countries in Africa and mainly and most importantly together uh there is a lot we can do to raise Africa to raise ourselves to the level where it should be and don't don't mind about >> these powers that think they own the world and heaven and everything else.

[00:20:38]>> And I hear you loud and clear on the hypocrisy and the contradiction in terms of where international law applies to some when it suits and it's broken in other cases. We've seen so much of this in a world where we're seeing the unraveling of the global world order as we know it. Institutions are being challenged. They're being broken down.

[00:20:56]What is Africa's role, do you think, in this new world? Because it feels like it's never going to be the same again.

[00:21:03]You know my view is that um these pressures that we get from the rest of the world, Africa I think is being reminded to wake up.

[00:21:22]So the pressures are are not entirely bad. I think they force Africa to look within for what we have to actually uh do what we need to do uh to find a good place for us in this uh world of those injustices and other challenges. So Africa looking within and and we have a lot to bring to bear on dealing with these challenges. I think we can succeed but above all we need to work together and move away from saying what we know because there is a lot we know and there is a lot we talk about but we need to do a lot more based on that >> the private sector I want to talk about scaling up or failing um you engage a lot with the private sector is such a prime example of incredible I mean we cover so many stories here I mean you're just seeing like hot bed of fantastic fantastic um growth. But where do you think the private sector is going wrong from breaching that level and becoming African champions and really truly scaling up?

[00:22:40]>> I think private sector is doing a good job. In fact, it is ahead of the public sector.

[00:22:48]But we could be served much better by finding a way to bring close private sector and the public sector and benefiting each other as one because that's what we are actually one when you look at the needs of the continent and so I want to thank the private sector the private sector they they are actually to some level hustlers.

[00:23:22]They are able to go through some of the barriers that are created by the public sector.

[00:23:28]But if those barriers were not there, the private sector would be far ahead of where they are and along with that the continent also would be ahead of where we are. So my call to all of us is for really coming together the private sector uh the the ways of how they could conduct business I think have been very elaborately put by air in the presentation you had with him earlier and those of us in the public sector uh need to finetune our uh responsibilities towards allowing the private sector to be the engine that they are and should be and all of us would benefit.

[00:24:28]>> I think the private the his excellency just gave all of you a compliment. He called you hustlers. He says you're the you know doing things better than the p.

[00:24:36]Yes. Give yourselves a round of applause >> Mr. president, you're so um you know so encouraging always. Um, I've got one other question and I want to talk about I mean when I wake up in the morning and I have to check can you believe social media to get an understanding of what leaders are thinking and a lot of the time it lacks decorum. It's shocking.

[00:24:58]You guys know who I'm talking about right? Yeah. I don't have to say it.

[00:25:03]What do you think of the way global leaders, the strongest leaders on this planet are speaking right now? When you I'm sure you wake, do you wake up and and check what people are saying? I mean, on social media, do you get shocked? What's shocked you the most?

[00:25:21]>> There's a lot.

[00:25:22]>> I I I have become immunized to >> Okay.

[00:25:26]>> to shocks. So, but social media is very interesting.

[00:25:33]It brings equality in some sense of presentation of ideas and uh feelings and and uh it has really media has been democratized. I think it is important.

[00:25:55]Um everyone can express themselves and they will be heard. If you are wrong there will be somebody to tell you say no no no that's not right and when it is right then people will say wait a minute I think there is a point here that we should be thinking about. So it has been so open that uh we have gone beyond having this narrow sense of being guided into things without sometimes thinking or we are conditioned to believing even what is not right just because it has been said by somebody >> in the media. So it has sort of opened up space for everybody. So some of us also follow and you it's up to any individual to scan and try and make a sense of what you've heard you are seeing and it it is a a good way you receive criticism. You receive advice and so it remains the responsibility of any individual to decide how They build on that and and benefit.

[00:27:19]>> You didn't answer my question about the shock factor. Are you shocked by some of the things you see?

[00:27:25]>> I'm not I'm not I said I've been immun immunized. Immunized.

[00:27:30]>> I'm not Yeah, I'm not shocked about I have I understand where the world we live in.

[00:27:36]>> Yeah, it's changed, right? It's completely different.

[00:27:39]>> Yeah. for the 30 something years of my life. In the last 30 years, if you look at I think um yeah we we we come to understand there will be things that would otherwise be shocking but they don't shock because we have been there.

[00:27:59]>> That's true. Uh Mr. President, final word. What do you want people to walk away with um from this forum as we say goodbye?

[00:28:10]Well, always it's a good opportunity, but I want people to know that each one of the people in this room and beyond have something to contribute >> and to benefit from and benefit each other.

[00:28:29]And uh the continent has a lot that is not being put to good use. And it is up to us. It's not people from anywhere else to be able to raise ourselves to that level where we should be.

[00:28:48]>> Ladies and gentlemen, please help me thank his excellency the president of Rwanda, Paul Kagame. What an honor to speak to you, sir. Thank you so much.

[00:28:56]>> Thank you very much.

[00:28:57]>> Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much.

[00:29:03]Always inspirational. Um, always insightful.

[00:29:10]And, uh, by by now a lot of you will know that I've been advocating for you guys to stay a couple more days. You need to go and see the gorillas. Has anybody done that?

[00:29:22]Like only like four of you.

[00:29:24]You need to book book it right now. Um ladies and gentlemen, there's going to be a presidential panel at 5:30 p.m.

[00:29:32]this afternoon. Please join us for that session. Uh President Kagam and other state heads of state will be joining for that. So we'll get more insights uh later on in the day. In the meantime, I want to call up someone I respect dearly. Um and a big honor to welcome an African industrialist, a Nigerian industrialist, a visionary Abdul Samad Rabio, chairman of the BU group. Sir, please join me on stage.

[00:30:16]Your Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, please permit me to stand on the already established protocol in the interest of time and given the truly distinguished gathering before us.

[00:30:38]We meet at a time when the global economic order is being reshaped in real time.

[00:30:46]Geopolitical tensions, shifting alliances and reconfigured supply chains are redefining how the world produces and trades.

[00:31:01]And in this reshaping, Africa is no longer marginal.

[00:31:05]The question is no longer whether Africa matters. The question is whether Africa is ready to act at scale.

[00:31:16]Africa's next phase of transformation hinges on five transformations. Capital policy infrastructure value addition and integration.

[00:31:33]Capital to finance ambition. Policy to enable execution.

[00:31:39]Infrastructure the foundation of growth. Value addition to unlock the full value of our resources.

[00:31:48]And integration to unlock scale.

[00:31:54]Let me start with capital.

[00:31:57]Across the continent. Institutional capital is expanding. Pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, insurance pools, and increasingly sophisticated private investment vehicles.

[00:32:15]Yet, infrastructure financing remains far below potential.

[00:32:22]The reality is clear. Africa is is not short of capital. It is short of coordinated mobile capital deployed at scale.

[00:32:34]We must unlock crossber capital flows, harmonize investment frameworks, strengthen project preparation and expand risk sharing mechanisms that attract both domestic and global investment.

[00:32:50]Deepening capital markets is equally critical.

[00:32:55]Crossber listings, interoperable settlement systems and expanded local currency trade are not merely technical reforms.

[00:33:04]They are strategic infrastructure.

[00:33:08]Financial independence begins with financial integration.

[00:33:15]But capital alone does not build economies.

[00:33:19]Policy determines whether capital becomes truly productive.

[00:33:25]across many regions. Segmented legal frameworks, overlapping approvals, and inconsistent enforcement continue to raise the cost of investment in Africa.

[00:33:39]These are structural constraints on growth.

[00:33:43]What is required is clear and transparent rules, predictable enforcement and coordinated industrial strategy across borders.

[00:33:54]Alignment does not compromise independence. Rather, it strengthen it strengthens economic performance.

[00:34:03]The 21st century will not reward detached brilliance by coordinated execution.

[00:34:13]Third, infrastructure. Because no economy can industrialize without the systems that power growth. Reliable energy, efficient ports, modern rail networks, quality roads, and digital connectivity are critical to reducing costs, improving productivity, and connecting African markets.

[00:34:37]Value addition, my favorite.

[00:34:41]Africa is rich in resources yet too often sends them abroad unprocessed along with the jobs, skills and value that belong here at home in Africa.

[00:34:56]This must change.

[00:35:00]Why export iron ore when we can export steel?

[00:35:06]Africa sits on over 20% of the world's iron or reserves and the quality as you all know is between 64 and 67 FE iron content which is the highest anywhere in the world.

[00:35:23]Why export crude oil one can power industrial ecosystems.

[00:35:29]Industrialization is no longer aspirational.

[00:35:34]It is a necessity.

[00:35:37]Nigeria's cement transition Nigeria's transition from cement importer to net net exporter proves what disciplined policy sustained investment a local capability can achieve.

[00:35:53]15 20 years ago Nigeria was importing over 90% of the cement that it was consuming. And then there was a deliberate policy and today Nigeria is producing over 50 million tons of cement with an install capacity of 65 million tons and I'm happy to say that was meant is part of that change with an install capacity of 17 million tons perom getting to 20 million tons by next year 2027.

[00:36:29]Again, global disruptions in energy and supply chains have reinforced a simple truth.

[00:36:46]Economies with domestic processing capacity are more resilient in times of shock.

[00:36:53]The current situation in the Middle East underscores the importance of local value addition and selfsufficiency.

[00:37:03]Nigeria offers a strong African example with the new refining capacity. Nigeria is strengthening its energy security while also supporting supply stability across parts of Africa.

[00:37:21]This is the path forward. Building resilience through domestic capacity and value addition across our continent.

[00:37:32]This is not only about growth. It is about resilience.

[00:37:40]Take cocoa for example.

[00:37:43]We all know that a handful of African countries produce the majority glo global supply of cocoa.

[00:37:51]Yet the continent captures only a fraction of a market that is short over $200 billion annually.

[00:37:58]These countries, four countries in fact in West Africa they produce 75% of the entire global supply but Africa gets only maybe about 15% of that.

[00:38:12]Because most of the value is created elsewhere in processing, manufacturing, branding and distribution.

[00:38:21]This is a structural value chain gap.

[00:38:26]Same pattern repeats across minerals and other commodities.

[00:38:32]Am I running out of time? Okay, thank you.

[00:38:38]Africa has over 30% of the world's minerals but adds little value.

[00:38:45]So when raw materials live without transformation, value lives with them.

[00:38:52]So if Africa is to grow at scale, it must shift from commodity exports to integrated industrial value chains.

[00:39:01]Value addition is the pathway to jobs, technology transfer and long-term resilience.

[00:39:10]Ultimately, integration is what turns potential to scale. And at the center of this effort is the African continental free trade area, a market of over 1.4 billion people across 54 countries, one of the most ambitious integration efforts in the world.

[00:39:30]Its promise is clear. Intra African trade, regional value chains and industrial skill that no single economy can achieve alone.

[00:39:41]But potential does not deliver outcomes.

[00:39:45]Execution does.

[00:39:48]At Bua Group, as we expanded our regional investments, we actively sought to supply severe African markets under the AFCA framework.

[00:39:59]While some countries embraced the spirit of the agreement, others were less supportive in practice with administrative barriers, legacy import structures limiting our ability to perspect fully a regional trade. So really AFCDA is not working as it should because I had a personal experience in one of the countries that we tried to penetrate.

[00:40:25]were actually frustrated.

[00:40:29]I reported that to my brother Mele and he's trying to do something about that.

[00:40:35]So this highlights a central reality that while the framework exists implementation remains uneven.

[00:40:46]something is same about free trade movement of people in Africa and again I had a personal experience last year February 2025 I was traveling to Cape Town for the mining endeavor in South Africa and as we landed and it was a red eye so I left at night from Lagos to Cape Town we arrived at 6:00 in the morning and as we arrived went to the immigration attended my passport. The immigration officer looked at it and he was like why is your visa and he said my visa is there?

[00:41:25]Unknown to me my visa had expired the day before and I was what happened unfortunately our crew did not check the visas to ensure that the visas were valid. We were there for 4 hours but at the end of the day I had to turn back. I was turned back to Lagos.

[00:41:46]But the issue is while we were waiting, you know, to see whether I would be able to get access into the country without a visa, there were like three international flights from Europe. All the three flights were mostly Europeans.

[00:42:00]I was standing there by the immigration desk and each and every passenger on those three flights went into Cape Town without any visa at all. I do not have a problem with the fact that I was there without a visa and I was returned. I took full responsibility of that. I had an issue being an Africa in Africa being turned away because I do not have a visa and foreigners from other continents who are coming in our allowed to enter without a visa. this must change.

[00:42:48]So frameworks like the e uh African continental free trade agreement provide the provide the foundation but impact will come from what you build on top of them. Industrial corridors linking production hubs, digital custom systems reducing border friction, efficient ports and logistics networks and crossber energy infrastructure.

[00:43:14]Integration must come from declaration to real economic reality.

[00:43:22]Your excellencies, Africa does not lack ambition.

[00:43:27]What it has lacked is coordinated execution at scale.

[00:43:38]The next decade will not be defined by detached progress but by system level transformation.

[00:43:45]The question is no longer whether Africa can grow. It is whether Africa can grow as one integrated economic system.

[00:43:55]Let us move forward. Let us move beyond frameworks into functioning systems. Let us ensure capital flows efficiently.

[00:44:04]Industry scales across borders and trade moves seamlessly because history will not judge us by the speeches we deliver. It will judge us by the systems we build and whether they enabled Africa to rise at scale.

[00:44:24]The moment is here.

[00:44:26]The choice is ours and the time is now.

[00:44:32]Africa at scale is not an aspiration.

[00:44:36]It is a decision. Thank you.

[00:44:48]So, thank you so very much. Um, brilliant to hear from you. We are about to start our next session. Um, we're just doing a little bit of a stage change. In the meantime, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Elen Jas. I'm an anchor and correspondent at CNN International. If you miss CNN, there's a massive screen in front of the pool area. So, if you think you're going to relax at the pool, you get to watch breaking news at the same time. And we know the current state of the world. Um, I also have a show called Connecting Africa. focus on intra-affrica trade, the implementation of the African continental free trade area. I have to say a lot of the people in this room I've had the opportunity to interview and feature on my show and I'm so grateful for all your input. It's so important to tell the African economic story at this point in time when the world is so fundamentally changing and let's be honest, countries around the world are trying to diversify and we've discussed this for so many years that the continent is the most important economic frontier for the future and we've really ascertained we're going to be signing better deals. So very excited about that. In the meantime, I'm honored to welcome Jennifer Sabasatcha. She is the chief Africa correspondent at Bloomberg TV and she's also an anchor and I respect her enormously. I'm quite a fan. So, Jennifer, join us.

[00:46:14]Thanks for that. Thanks so much, Elenni.

[00:46:17]Hello, everyone. And yes, as Eleni was saying, there is still quite a bit to discuss and it's my pleasure to have a group of panelists uh joining me in just a few minutes to dig into some of these themes that we've been hearing uh a number of our speakers this morning talk about. So without further ado, I'd like to welcome them up to the stage. First, his excellency Abdullah A al-Mui, the president of the Arab Bank for the economic development in Africa.

[00:46:47]We also have Ethiopus Tafara, regional vice president for Africa at the IFC John Pascal Triqua, chairman for Schneider Electric.

[00:47:00]Hi.

[00:47:05]And finally, Maryanne Musangi, managing director of Heo Industries. Please welcome my panelists on stage.

[00:47:18]Thanks so much.

[00:47:21]So, thank you all so much for being here. We have over throughout the morning been hearing quite extensively about this idea of of shared interest and shared value and shared ownership.

[00:47:33]But before we get into really the practicality of of how that works, uh, and I do want to speak to each of you in your respective sectors how that would work. I I thought just to continue what we've been hearing, it's it's important to talk about where we are right now and and Ethiopus, I was hoping you would would be the one to kick us off, especially uh as the private sector arm of the World Bank. Can you talk about how what we're seeing with the fraying of multilateralism, the scaling back of aid, the rechaning of capital, how is that affecting the mandate that the IFC has? Is it affecting the mandate?

[00:48:12]>> Oh, the mic's right.

[00:48:17]I I think the mandate is actually all the more relevant um in the current context. um for two reasons. I think um on the one hand we still have collective action problems uh that require collective action. Um just look at what's going on with respect to um the hunter virus. Right?

[00:48:42]This is a problem that's going to require a multilateral solution. Um and the same is true with climate change.

[00:48:50]The same is true uh with uh migration.

[00:48:53]So I think multilateralism remains a very important vehicle for addressing uh the challenges uh that the world faces but also you know we've heard about this renewed um approach involving the pursuit of national interests um and you have a number of different national interests that come to bear. Somebody has got to find the common ground, right? Uh and this is where I think institutions uh like the IFC, like the World Bank remain relevant to find the common ground among those national interests uh that are being pursued uh on on the continent. So um yes, we are as president Kagame has noted in a world of geopolitical geopolitical shifts. Uh but I think institutions like ours are going to help navigate those shifts. uh because collective action remains important and because national interests you've got to find common ground among them.

[00:49:51]>> Thanks for that. John Pascal, I'd love for you to weigh in from a private sector perspective. We're seeing this fraying of multilateralism really playing out in your sector with energy.

[00:50:02]Give us your pulse for for how that is playing how it's been playing out over the past few few weeks and months.

[00:50:08]>> Well, first many thanks for um having me having us here. Thanks to President Kag for hosting this conference and uh to Jenna on VCO to associate China but for us we've been for many years working on the continent and we are uh really engaged on three priorities for scaling.

[00:50:32]The first one is more energy for the continent. The second one that shouldn't be ne neglected is more digital, more data centers. And the third one is more local production, more local industry.

[00:50:47]But I think the mother of all resolution is more energy. So as a company, we support all energies. Of course we support nuclear, we support oil and gas and we support on the continent the largest installation pipelines extraction most refineries.

[00:51:05]But the revolution of our time what's happening at the moment is electrification of the world. It's about technology. It's about electric mobility. It's about more electricity in buildings, more AC as countries develop. So we we see here uh the priority to develop more electrification and what's needed here is to open up the game to all the solutions because technology is moving very fast. Before it was false centralized now it's a lot of decentralized a lot of renewable.

[00:51:40]There are a lot of actors who want to develop more energy. So we need simpler policies so that more energy can be developed. We need more grids and we serve that. We need more smart grids and today we do the largest on the smartest grid in Africa at Schneider and we need to develop the human capital to develop to to deploy all of those technologies.

[00:52:05]>> Thank you. Marian uh please jump in from a company perspective and a so-called theme perspective on the ground. Um, has this recent crisis that we've seen, has that made this shared collective action and and doubling down of of continuity and shared value even more relevant for for your businesses?

[00:52:25]>> Please allow me to introduce myself. I'm the theme that Maktadop talked about.

[00:52:31]I'm the hustler that his excellency talked about and I represent the women in the room to be the first one on stage today.

[00:52:41]Um I I uh run a manufacturing company in started off in Kenya. It's a family business started in se 1974 uh by my father Dr. Chris Kirubi. I am second generation. Uh we started off the business uh through licensing agreements. Our biggest brand was Bick Pens which we manufactured until 2018 when BIC decided that they are not going to renew their license to us again. This was 70% of our business overnight. We lost that revenue.

[00:53:17]We had to divert. We had to reinvent ourselves. And one thing we realized is we cannot be relying on other people's agenda. When you look at multinationals, Africa is merely 2 to 5% of their total global revenues. So when they make decisions in the US, in Dubai, in other markets, they don't even ask Africa what it means for them. So we reinvented, we created our own brands. We manufacture personal care, hair care products of which we source all our natural oils from the continent of Africa. Our vision is an Africawide vision. So not only do we sell in the African continent, but we also source as much of our raw materials within the African continent. We buy hoba oil from Egypt. We buy argan oil from Tunisia. We buy cocoa butter, Shia butter from Uganda, from Ghana. We support local economies because if we add value to that agricultural chain as was said earlier by the speaker before um it only grows Africa with the crisis that is currently happening now it we have to remain agile and because we are sourcing from our own continent it means that the impact that we have faced over the last couple of months since February has has not been that dramatic through co it wasn't that dramatic we were able to sustain ourselves and thus the importance of relying on Africa making sure that we are self- sustaining as a continent >> thank you Maryanne that was great >> your excellency I'd like as the development finance institution uh of the panelists what do Do you see the role of of Badia in supporting and enabling some of the shared collective growth that that we're talking about?

[00:55:24]>> Uh thank you. First of all, I would like to thank uh Rwanda and his excellency the president for the hospitality and the warm welcoming in Rwanda.

[00:55:36]Uh as a development agency, let me first give you a brief about Badia. body established in 1974 by the Arab League and uh our mandate is to to bring the Arab capital into Africa and also move the capitals between the African countries and for that we work in uh four pillars uh private sector, trade finance, public sector and grant and technical assistance and as an uh development institute uh we have a group called the Arab coordination group. It consists of 10 Arab uh development institutes and we work together in over all over the world. But in my case as a bada as an institute work in Africa we uh coordinate with them to bring capitals and to bring to work with the big project in Africa and as a bada my role is to see what Africa needs and how we can help them and we have many ways to help them but the main idea that if I entered in any project I will bring with me. Every dollar I put, I'll bring four to five or maybe sometimes $6 in this project. So our main purpose is the find the right projects and bring our uh sister institute to invest and to bring the capitals from the Arab world to Africa.

[00:57:16]>> Let me ask has has that changed or or needed to evolve a bit since February?

[00:57:23]Well, of course it's changed. Uh now Africa needs more uh we have to put more money because uh we have to give them uh as you know they need fuel, fertilizers, these important things.

[00:57:40]Most of it comes from the Gulf region and as you know the Gulf region is now closed and it's just start working.

[00:57:48]So they need as a an area they close they need to buy from other places and we have to help them and supply them with money to bring these commodities and fuel and fertilizer to Africa so they can manage until the prices goes down.

[00:58:09]>> Thank you.

[00:58:10]>> Thank you for that. John Pascal, Jump in here because there really is an opportunity when we talk about this shared um interest and value on the energy side as you were alluding to.

[00:58:19]Schneider is a global company and has at least tried to do this elsewhere. Are you replicating any models that you've done maybe in Asia and bringing that here to Africa? When we think about this collective action, >> we we are not trying to replicate but we are learning from other experiences, right? uh it happens we are a little bit uh unusual in the sense that our second largest market in the world after the US is China and the third one is India and I had the privilege personally to be part of the small team that started both operations what I can see is that in both of those operations what we do is largely specific >> because the ecosystem the technology is different are different the culture of developing business is different happen also to be working in Africa 25 years ago and I created most of the officers here in subsaran Africa and my engagement with the teams here with our local teams is to say think really local >> and think according to the priorities of the place and the way of doing and we're going to develop technologies some of them will be international if they adapt. But the priority will be to deploy local technologies in Africa for Africa with local partners. And when we speak about local industrialization, our priority is not to do by ourselves.

[00:59:52]We have factories on the continent. But it's more so to work together with partners so that they can develop their local production, their local engineering, their local project management. That's how we work. How we work in China, in India, and how we work here in Africa, in the multiple countries where we are.

[01:00:13]>> What does that mean for the partners that you're looking for, especially when you think about maximizing the value um regionally, not just at the local level?

[01:00:21]>> Look, I I don't think you can do anything alone. We are by nature we are a tech company and but but that tech is only a minimal value of the systems we are providing like the largest data centers in the world or the largest refineries or the electrical grids and so on. So what we want is to collaborate with local actors so that we innovate together. We co-inovate and we put at their disposal all the stacks of innovation from products to control system to software to AI modules so that they can be developed really uh here according to the specificities of a country. I think there is one point we shouldn't miss but I don't want to start talking about it because then I will >> you can talk about it really quick.

[01:01:11]>> Data centers. So I'll come back to that afterwards if you give me the opportunity.

[01:01:16]>> You just wanted to say data centers.

[01:01:19]>> More data centers. This is what I wanted to say. Well, and we can we can come back to that in a bit because that really does require um energy as you were mentioning, but also a number of of partners in order to actually galvanize the capital to make it happen and to actually get things off the ground.

[01:01:36]Ethioped shared value as a concept is one thing.

[01:01:44]Practically speaking, are we seeing it successfully working on the continent? I mean I think of libido corridor potentially as an example of one but when we think about the private sector what is a model that maybe we should look to.

[01:01:58]>> So I actually think the shared opportunity we have is the demographics on the continent. We have both the workforce of the future as well as the marketplace of the future. Right. Um the the numbers are quite telling. uh and I think the shared opportunity for us is creating jobs for this demographic both uh because they are going to be the workforce but also because it gives them the means to actually be a marketplace worth pursuing and as um Jean Pascalis said uh energy is critical to that right so we have to look at what is foundational to job creation >> um and without energy there is no there is no there is no develop velment. Uh, and we have to think about it not simply in terms of electrification of individuals but also power to uh to to industry. Um, but then the other thing you need to think about, and you're you're you're alluding to this, as you're creating jobs, you need to be able to connect people and businesses to markets and markets to markets. And that requires physical infrastructure, um, like the Loito corridor, uh, like the ports we're working on, like airports, but also digital infrastructure because today, um, when you get connected to the to the world, to markets, it requires a digital connection. And then I think we really should be focusing on those sectors that are going to create jobs.

[01:03:23]Uh for us a huge part of the shared opportunity that we're going to be pursuing with the private sector is around agriculture.

[01:03:30]Uh some of it is going to be around theme finance given that 80 to 90% of jobs in any marketplace are created bymemes. Um critical minerals and mining obviously an area of keen interest health and tourism um and then value add manufacturing. But as Jean Pascal said all of this can't be pursued by us alone. We really need partners >> uh like the partners we have on this day is here uh and like many of uh many of the people in this room. Uh this is something that's going to require again a collective effort.

[01:04:01]>> Uh we're we we're looking for people to help us to take advantage of what we see as a shared opportunity when it comes to the African demographic.

[01:04:09]>> Maryanne as as the theme here again I'm sorry to to keeping that but Ethiop is talking there about the opportunity for different sectors. Agriculture obviously touches um potentially some of the sectors that that you um are a part of.

[01:04:24]Are you are you able to access some of um the capital that is that is being channeled to some of these projects? How are you finding it from your perspective? What are the challenges maybe and how do we move forward from that? Before I respond to accessing capital, let me just say thank you to Schneijder and because the cost of power in Egypt is 0.03 cents.

[01:04:49]The cost of power in Kenya is 0.18 US cents, which makes it very difficult for the Kenyan market to be able to compete in manufacturing or in any other sector that requires energy with countries such as Egypt. So just stabilizing those costs really will help economies grow. Now moving to capital.

[01:05:12]There's no shortage of capital as has been said earlier and we've heard it before Republic.

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